ReAnimatorSilent Hill crossover
by HarleenQuinzel1212
Summary: My long Re-Animator/Silent Hill crossover, which still doesn't have a title. It takes place before Bride of Re-Animator. I'd like feedback and title suggestions. Silent Hill and Re-Animator belong to their respective owners, Bob belongs to a friend.
1. Arrival

"I'm not sure I want to take you on vacation with me anymore," Dan Cain told his friend, if that's what you could call him, Herbert West. "Not after that."

Herbert's features set into a look that told Dan the budding mad scientist was upset. "I don't see how it was wrong."

"It's one of the things you just don't understand."

Herbert's brow furrowed and his eyebrows knitted. "What does that mean, Dan?" he asked, both upset and angry.

Dan gulped. "Uh...nothing."

"That's right, that was nothing." Herbert relaxed a bit. "At least we'll be home soon."

"Just where are we anyways?"

"You could always check that sign." Herbert pointed at a sign ahead of them in the road. It read "Welcome to Silent Hill" in faded white letters on a black background.

"Silent Hill, huh? Never heard of it."

As soon as they got into town, they heard Dan's car sputter. The car suddenly came to a dead stop.

"Oh, not now. Not now," Dan said emotionally, trying to start the car. "Start. Come on, start."

"We're in town," Herbert said, wondering why Dan would be upset over a car dying. "We can call a tow truck. At least nothing has happened to us."

"Good idea, Herbert." They got out of the car and grabbed their luggage. They bumped into a young woman with black hair and brown eyes in a gray sweater, red pants and black shoes as they walked down the street.

"I-I'm sorry," the young woman stuttered meekly.

"It's okay, it was all me," Dan apologized. "I didn't mean to do that. It's just that my friend bumped into me as we were passing you."

"Dan, don't say that!" Herbert shouted, only heard by the young woman.

"What are you doing here?" Dan asked.

"I'm looking for my mom...mother and my brother as well."

"I hope you find them."

Dan and Herbert walked into a flower shop. Dan approached the person behind the counter.

"Could we use your phone?" Dan asked. "My car has suddenly stopped and I need to call a tow truck."

"Go ahead," she answered, handing Dan a phone book.

"Thanks," he replied, dialing a number. He told the company where the car was. "Thanks. That won't be long at all." He hung up the phone and grabbed a map before he and Herbert headed out of the door. "They said it's going to take a while to fix the car. We might as well take a look around town, it seems like a nice place."

"That would certainly be better than doing nothing," Herbert said.

They walked away down Lindsey.


	2. Exploration

"I suppose it's a good thing you grabbed the map, isn't it?" Herbert asked as he and Dan walked down Lindsey Street. He struggled to carry every single piece of luggage he and Dan had with them, not an easy task for someone of his slight build. He looked around, confused as to why he didn't hear or see signs of other people being around. He was even hoping to smell something, no matter what it was. He also noticed that this now desolate town is blanketed in a thick, eerie fog. "Have you noticed how foggy it is all of a sudden? And where is everyone else?"

"It sure is," Dan said. Herbert was now painfully aware of the fact that his friend didn't hear him speak because his nose was buried in the map. "Maybe we should look for a place to stay."

Herbert smiled internally because he wants to get rid of his burden. He certainly wouldn't show this on the outside though, not wanting to come across as weirder than usual to Dan.

"That would be good." A slight sparkling by a garage caught his attention. He saw a shovel and a small brown bottle and made his way over to investigate. "Hold on a second, Dan." He picked up the shovel and noticed that it bore an eerie resemblance to the one in Dan's basement that he used to defend himself from Dr. Hill. He looked closely at the small brown bottle and saw an off white label on it with a red cross and the words health drink in black letters. He wondered why a health drink and shovel were just sitting around on a street, but took both items with him as he walked back over to Dan, who was still nose deep in the map.

As they continued their exploration, they found themselves on Vachss. At the intersection with Lindsey they found another health drink. Herbert picked it up and they regarded it with curiosity.

"What is health drink doing in a place like this?" Dan wondered aloud. Herbert was amazed that he and Dan could share thoughts as Dan carefully studied their surroundings. "Herbert, do you have any idea why it's so foggy and why we're the only ones here?" As he spoke, Herbert's frustration grew.

Herbert slapped his forehead as soon as Dan ended his question. "I had already asked you that, but you were too busy reading the map."

"Sorry," Dan apologized, a little sarcasm in his voice. They nearly passed by two more drinks, but thankfully remembered to pick them up. "I suppose these might come in handy later."

"How could we get injured?" Herbert asked. "We seem to be the only ones here."

"Seem being the key word."

They continued going until they saw a gate that was slightly open. They went through it and saw they were in part of a construction site. Seemingly out of nowhere came a strange static.

"Maybe we aren't the only ones here," Dan said.


	3. Fight

Herbert and Dan entered the heart of the construction site through some wooden planks. They both saw a small medium gray radio and heard the static blasting full bore from it. Dan went over to take a look at it and only stopped when he heard Herbert clear his throat to get his attention, and then turned around to face his friend.

"What's up, Herbert?" he asked.

Herbert pointed with a finger on the hand not holding his shovel across the site. "That's what's...up, Dan," he answered.

Dan followed the path formed by Herbert's finger. He immediately recognized the figure in front of him, but had no clue how on Earth that person could be there. It was a man with wild gray hair and blue eyes with a circular laser burn on his forehead and blood both on his forehead and spewing out of his mouth bound in a straitjacket. Dan noticed the creature, or whatever it was, looked uneasy standing.

"Herbert, what did you do?" Dan asked. He eyed Herbert suspiciously.

Herbert looked crushed. "Nothing. It seems it was here before we were."

Dan gave Herbert an apologetic look. "What are we going to do?"

Herbert held up his shovel. "Leave it to me." He gripped both hands tightly onto the handle of the shovel. "Stand back."

The creature stumbled toward Herbert. When it was close enough, Herbert hit it with the shovel until he knew it was dead. Dan watched this all, both amazed and shocked especially about the way Herbert calmly and casually did what it was he was doing. Herbert rejoined him and shoved the radio in his hand, wiping a little sweat and creature blood off of his forehead with his other hand.


	4. Blocked

Herbert and Dan left the construction site and returned to the streets. Dan finally noticed that Herbert was struggling with the luggage.

"I'll take my luggage," Dan said. He did so.

"Thank you," Herbert said.

"I'll also take the radio and the map. You can be in charge of the items and..." Dan looked at the bloody shovel in his friend's hand and suppressed a shudder. "...fighting."

They almost went past Katz Street, still expecting it to be blocked off. They backtracked when they saw it wasn't and walked down it aimlessly. 'Just how long is this street?' they both wondered to themselves. 'What are we going to in this place when it's just the two of us and some monsters?'

"Where should we go next, Dan?" Herbert asked. Dan looked at him for a moment, wondering how his friend could know what he was thinking.

"There's a park nearby," Dan said. He looked away from the map. "It has a good view of the lake."

"That seems mildly interesting. How would we get there?"

"There are a few routes to choose from. We can try either North Neely, West Katz or West Saul."

"I say we try West Saul," Herbert said, looking over Dan's shoulder at the map on his tiptoes.

"Alright."

Once they had gotten to West Saul, they saw a big wall was in their way. A wall that seemed to be mocking them silently. Dan groaned, clearly upset.

"Well, that's just irritating," Herbert said. Dan sighed at him.

"You were the one that suggested we go this way. What are we going to do now?"

Herbert turned and saw a motor home over his shoulder. "Don't fret, Dan," he said. He pointed to the motor home and they went over to it and went inside.


	5. Bar Neeley's

Herbert walked over to the couch and picked up a piece of paper. He read it over and decided to tell its contents to Dan, first telling him about the fact that there's something on the couch. "It seems we need to go to Bar Neely's. Where is that located?"

Dan was unable to tell if Herbert was messing with him or not. "Let me see." He looked at the map. "It's on Neely Street."

"That would be a given, wouldn't it?" Herbert asked in response.

"You already knew that, didn't you?" Dan asked him, not surprised. Herbert just smiled at him.

"Shall we get going now that we've established where the bar is?"

They left the motor home through the other door and walked until they hit Neely. They located the bar and tried to find a way to get in. They split up, but Dan joined Herbert at the side doors when he discovered that the front doors were locked. They went in through the doors and saw that the windows were covered in paper. They took a look around the dank bar for anything of importance. At least that was what Herbert did. Dan sat at the bar, just wanting to relax for a moment.

"I don't suppose we can get a drink anywhere in here," Dan said, getting ready to get a lecture from Herbert.

"I highly doubt that anything electric, like coolers, work in a place like this. More importantly, there are no people here who can fix everything," Herbert said. "Dan, do you think you're qualified to fix such things?" He walked over to the counter after a map caught his attention. "You might want to look at this map."

Dan sighed and got off his stool. He wandered over to look at something written on the newspaper covering the window in red. He scratched his head, having no clue what "There was a HOLE here. It's gone now," meant. He was too absorbed in pondering the meaning to hear Herbert. "What is it?" he asked.

"Dan, get over here!" Herbert shouted, out of patience.

Dan walked over to see what was so important that he would be yelled at louder than usual.


	6. Corpse

Herbert showed the map to Dan. "Notice the question mark on North Martin Street. I believe that should be our next destination."

Dan looked at the map and marked the location of the question mark on theirs. "Did you really have to yell that loud?" he asked.

"I had already told you I wanted you to come look at this, but you didn't seem to hear me."

They left the bar to make their way to North Martin Street.

"There was this weird phrase on the paper covering the window of the bar, that's why I didn't hear you the first time," Dan explained. "I'm sorry."

They eventually found the location of the question mark, and the question mark turned out to be the corpse of a seemingly healthy full-grown male leaning up against a wooden fence surrounded by six memos.

"I'll check out the memos," Herbert said. He approached them and began to pick them up. He glanced longingly at the corpse and his free hand began to move towards his pocket.

"I guess that means I'll check the corpse for anything important," Dan said. He knew this was best for both the corpse and Herbert, knowing that Herbert would try to bring the corpse back to life. "I certainly know what you would do if you were checking out the corpse." He approached the corpse and began to search every inch of its clothes for anything important.

Herbert organized the memos by the order they seemed to go in. He decided to read them one by one and hoped they would be important in some way. "This is the first memo. 'I'm going to write everything that I've learned so far. Maybe that will help you out somehow. If you're reading this, it probably means I'm already dead.' Some monsters must have gotten to him. This is the second one. 'I saw those demons. They were there, I'm certain. But my friend says he didn't see anything. If that's true, does that mean that what I saw was an illusion? But whether or not that demon that ate human beings was real, or whether it was just some kind of hallucination that my mind dreamed up...one thing I know for sure is that I'm beyond all hope.' Here's number three. 'It seems they're attracted to light. That's why people who need light to see are their natural prey. They also react strongly to sound. If you want to go on living, you'd be better off sitting in the dark and staying quiet. But even that probably won't save you.' And..."

Dan got a clueless look on his face and decided to stop Herbert from reading the rest so he could speak his mind. "Whoa, hold on. How would anyone need light in this place?"

"We'll find out. Now...'If you're going to try to fight them, the most important thing is to relax. It's dangerous to fire a gun while you're all crazy with fear. Take good aim and then squeeze the trigger. And don't forget to finish them off. I think most of those creatures can be killed, even if they are tougher than people.' It seems we're near a gun. 'Run away.' That's all it says. This must be when the person was close to death. Here's the last one. 'Run away! Run away! Run away! Run away! Run away! Run away! Run away! Run away! Run away!'"

"Poor guy," Dan said, fishing a key out of one of the pockets on the corpse's clothing. "I just got a key. It's for the Wood Side apartment building. Let's go there." He handed Herbert the key before he looked at the map to locate the apartment building.

He found out that it was on West Katz and they headed to the building.


	7. Wood Side apartments

"How much longer until we get to the apartment building, Dan?" Herbert asked as they walked down West Katz.

"Not much longer," Dan replied, closing the map. He saw a gate out of the corner of his eye and looked beyond it to see a building that looked quite like an apartment building to him. "We're there." He pointed at the gate and they approached it.

Herbert got out the key and unlocked the gate. They went inside the building through the set of double doors and saw they were in the main building. Dan got the map of the building from a bulletin board on the left side of the room.

They went up to the 2nd floor and entered room 205. They saw a strangely lit fashion mannequin wearing some clothes. They were both intrigued by two entirely different things going on with the mannequin.

For Dan, it was most definitely the clothes the mannequin was dressed in. "Th...the mannequin's wearing the dress that Meg wore the night she died," he told Herbert, choking up. _Why did I have to be reminded of this?_ he asked himself.

"It seems it is," Herbert said, totally oblivious to Dan's feelings as usual. "I'm more interested in what's making it so strangely lit." He approached the mannequin and found a pair of flashlights on it. He walked back over to Dan and handed him one of the flashlights. "This would be why." He saw tears threatening to spill from Dan's eyes. "Dan...d-don't cry."

"These will be useful if we get caught in the dark at any point." He remembered that third memo from earlier. "But we'll have to make sure no monsters see us because of them." He looked at Herbert and smiled a little.

They went to leave the room and heard a strange shuffling behind them. Static blasted out of the radio and they turned around. A demonic mannequin began to approach them. They noticed it was nothing but a putrid brownish white torso and legs.

They ran out of the room and didn't stop running until they reached room 210 where they went through the door.


	8. Gun

The static blaring from the radio told Herbert and Dan that they were not alone. They looked around and saw a Dean Halsey monster in the living room by a table that had two boxes of handgun bullets on top of it. Herbert moved closer to both monster and table. The monster struck out to attack him, but Herbert was faster and killed it in a matter of seconds. He grabbed the bullets and walked over to Dan, not bothered by all the blood spattered over him. The queasy look on Dan's face told him that his friend was bothered since it had replaced the one of shock in reaction to how quickly and calmly he had dealt with the monster. Herbert smiled reassuringly up at his friend as he wiped the spot of blood from his face.

They left the room and went up to the 3rd floor.

Dan noticed a set of bars separating one part of the hall from the other. He had no idea why they were there. "What are those bars doing there?" he asked himself out loud.

"I think it's a common thing for apartment buildings."

"I wasn't expecting an answer for that."

They approached the bars and noticed a key on the other side. Dan reached through the bars and nearly had the key when he felt something step on his hand, something sharp. He withdrew and took a look at his hand. He noticed small scratches on it, ones that looked like the ones he got when his cat Rufus was upset.

He stood up and faced Herbert. "Did you see what got the key out of my grip?" he asked.

"Yes. It was the reanimated version of your cat."

"It's not enough that there's a monster that looks like Dean Halsey. What's Rufus doing here?" He suddenly perked up and smiled. "Maybe that means Meg's here."

Herbert slapped his forehead in frustration again at this suggestion. "That can't be possible, she's dead."

"It wouldn't hurt to find out, would it?" He walked away before Herbert could respond in the negative.

They entered room 301's living room. They saw an out of place shopping cart and Dan approached it. He returned with a black handgun with a black handle.

"I can help you fight now," he told his friend, loading the gun with some bullets they had collected.


	9. Terror

Herbert quickly looked around the rest of the apartment. "There seems to be nothing else here," he noted. "Let's go."

They left the room and went back to the 2nd floor. As soon as they reached an intersection with the northern hallway they heard a muffled but bloodcurdling scream. Herbert remained calm while Dan jumped.

"What was that!?" Dan squeaked like a frightened kid. Herbert made a point of rolling his eyes at him.

"Why don't we find out?" Herbert asked, calmly. "It came from the north so let's go that way."

They walked north and saw more bars near room 208. They saw someone standing behind the bars. Dan recoiled in fear as he recognized the half-burnt one-armed man in front of them. It was the reanimated corpse that killed Meg by strangling her to death. He moved closer to room 208, causing Herbert to give his friend a curious look.

They entered room 208 and heard rather loud static. Dan brought the radio close to his ear and heard nothing and figured the static must be from some outside source. They entered the living room and found that the TV was the source of the static. They noticed a large, ratty old mustard yellow chair in front of the TV but couldn't see the person sitting in it. They moved around to the front and Dan suddenly wished they hadn't. A dead man was sitting in the chair and he looked badly injured, his skull bashed in and brains very visible. Dan began to shake in fright and Herbert noticed this.

"What's wrong, Dan?" he asked.

Dan pointed at the corpse, gagging a little. "It's dressed like me. And looks like me. I really don't like that."

Herbert briefly looked at the corpse. "Hmm." That was all he could say, but he want to say more, especially considering how upset Dan was. _I could have at least found some other way to comfort him,_ he thought. He went to another part of the apartment and grabbed the key to room 202 after shoving Dan towards the bathroom. As he returned to the living room he passed a room with a clock in it. He stood at Dan's side. "We need to go to room 202. Dan...?"


	10. Time on the Run

They went into room 202. Herbert busied himself in another part of the apartment while Dan went into the bedroom. He saw a hole in the wall that was oozing with a strange liquid in a nasty shade of green, not unlike the color of Herbert's serum. He saw a key embedded in the hole, but was far too grossed out to attempt to reach in and get it.

"Eww," he said to himself. He truly began to doubt his ability to reach in and get the key and decided to get some assistance. "Herbert, I need your help!"

Herbert ran into the room as soon as he heard Dan's voice. "What is it?" he asked.

"There's a key in the hole in the wall, but there's a weird liquid too. Do you think you could get out the key for me?"

"Oh Dan, you can do this," Herbert said. "I have complete faith in you."

Dan smiled, happy that Herbert wasn't yelling at or ignoring him for once. "Thanks." He stuck his hand into the hole. He took out the key and he and Herbert gave it a once over.

"It seems to be a key for a clock," Herbert said. "I remember seeing a room with a clock in room 208."

They returned to room 208 and went into the clock room. Dan unlocked the clock face with the key as Herbert looked at something engraved on the clock's side.

"'The scars from the past shall remove the nail that stops Time,'" he read. "What does that mean?"

"I'm sure we'll find out," Dan said. "I'm going to try moving the clock, so could you get out of the way?"

"Couldn't I help you?"

Dan realized what he had said. "Sure."

They went to the side of the clock and pushed with all their combined might. Nothing happened.

"It's not moving," Dan panted. "Why?"

"I'm sure there's something we can find in the apartment to help us figure this out," Herbert said.

They returned to the living room to search for clues.

Herbert went over to a small table by the wall where the phone rested. He picked up a memo and found Dan by the chair, still staring at the corpse that wasn't his that was dressed like it was his. He had trouble understanding why he was there if it bothered him so much.

"I think I found something that may help us solve our problem with the clock," he said.

Dan heard Herbert, not knowing he was there before. He jumped. "That's great."

"Alright, here's what it says." Herbert cleared his throat. "'Three different sizes, time on the run. Three young men circlin' round the sun. Henry is short and very, very slow, Scott can't stop, he's always on the go.'"

"Those are the descriptions of the hour and second hands on a clock," Dan said. "You were right, this is going to help us solve our problem with the clock."

They went back into the clock room and noticed something on the wall opposite the clock.

"There are three names here," Herbert said. "They're Henry, Mildred and Scott."

"Mildred must represent the minute hand," Dan said. "That hardly helps us, but it's a start."

"Wait, there's more on here," Herbert said, pointing next to each name. "There are scratches next to the names."

Dan followed the path formed by his friend's finger. "What do you think they mean?"

"The way they point in different directions in conjunction with the fact that the names represent hands on a clock lead me to believe that they are numbers on a clock. This really is going to help out quite a lot."

"Let's just figure out which number is which," Dan said.

Herbert grinned. "Leave this to me."

"So, what are the numbers?" Dan asked, walking over to the clock. "Let me know, and I'll turn the hands to the right positions."

"The number by Henry is 9. The one by Mildred is 2, which translates to 10 minutes. Finally the number by Scott is 3 or 15 seconds."

Dan turned the hour hand to 9 and the minute hand to 2. He noticed that the second hand was already at 15 seconds. "Well, that's lucky," he told himself. He heard a clank and was reminded of the words engraved on the side of the clock that talked about the nail that stops time. He turned to Herbert. "I think we can try moving the clock again now."

Herbert joined him at the side of the clock. "Let's do this then."

They pushed the clock until it was well out of their way. They saw a hole in the wall and went through it to find themselves in room 209. After Herbert got something from the kitchen they left the apartment.

It seemed they were now on the other side of the bars in the hall. They walked for a while a found a blue door that led to a staircase. They went through it and found themselves in a stairwell. They went up and through the door once they reached the 3rd floor. The area seemed new to them.

"I don't remember being able to get to this part of the floor before," Dan stated.

They went into room 307 where they see the reanimated burn victim doing something to a couple of mannequins. Dan realized what they were doing, much to his horror and disgust, and he dragged Herbert with him into the nearby closet. As they settled on the floor, he started gagging again. Herbert rubbed his back in the hopes that it would relax him.


	11. Monster BowChikAWowWow

Herbert knelt near the closet door, quite engrossed in what was going on almost directly in front of him. A slight smile was on his face, one that showed he was enjoy this in some weird way. Dan sat behind him, disturbed and white as a sheet, and not only by what was going on.

"This is quite fascinating," Herbert eagerly told Dan.

"You realize what they're doing, don't you?" Dan asked him.

"Oh yes I do, but it's still quite fascinating. It proves that not only animals can engage in these sorts of activities."

Dan moved closer to the door and got out his gun. He lightly shoved Herbert out of his way and aimed at the reanimated corpse. He shot at it a few times. When the corpse grew tired of being fired at, it left the room.

"Let's get out of here," Dan said to Herbert. He noticed something sparkling out of the corner of his eye and grabbed a key. "This goes to the courtyard." He gave the key to Herbert.

They stood up and left the closet. They then left the apartment and walked down the hall, narrowly avoiding an attack from a Dean Halsey monster. They went west and found themselves behind the bars where they had their run in with Rufus. Herbert picked up the key that Dan had almost gotten earlier, a fire escape key. They went into the laundry room where Herbert collected some ammo for his friend. They then went into room 303, which was right near the laundry room.

They went back into the hall and walked southeast. They found a stairwell and walked down to the 1st floor. Where the door once stood was a giant hole. They went through the hole and walked down the hall.

Dan saw a six-pack of canned juice in front of room 107 and picked it up, still feeling thirsty. They went to the lobby and outside from there.


	12. Garbage to Garbage

Dan suddenly remembered the garbage stuck in the laundry room garbage chute that he noticed when they were first in there. "We need to go back inside," he told Herbert.

They went back up to the 2nd floor once they went inside again. Dan directs Herbert to the laundry room. He pointed out the garbage and was glad he remembered it.

"I don't suppose we have anything that can be used to knock it loose," Herbert said.

Dan looked at the canned juice and sighed, disappointed that he couldn't drink all six or at least one of the cans. He knew he would have to bear with his thirst for a little while more. "This should work. It would've been nice to drink it though, and I would have shared with you, Herbert." He lobbed the juice at the chute.

They both heard a loud crash and Herbert semi-smiled at Dan in acknowledgment of his job well done. They headed back outside to find where the garbage landed. They turned right and saw the garbage.

"Would you kindly care to search through that garbage for anything important?" Herbert asked Dan, way too sweetly, especially for him.

"You're helping me."

"Fine."

They searched through the garbage. Herbert picked up a coin with an old man on it and a section of the local newspaper.

Dan moved closer to him as he began to read the article. The story was about the death of a man named Walter Sullivan arrested a few years back in connection with the brutal murders of two local children. It also gave the thoughts of a former friend of Sullivan who claimed that Sullivan wasn't himself and said that "the red devil" made him do it. A chill ran down Dan's spine as he heard the story.


	13. Pool Party

"Those poor kids," Dan said as they entered the western building of the complex.

"He was clearly crazy, so he might not have been in complete control of his mental faculties," Herbert said. Dan was amazed that Herbert could gauge how crazy somebody was, considering that he himself was a little crazy as well, which was definitely something he couldn't say directly to his friend's face. Rather, he didn't want to anymore. "But yes, it was a shame those children had to be his victims."

They noticed that the door by the stairs led to the courtyard. Herbert unlocked it with the courtyard key and they went outside. They went up some stairs and saw a pool nearby. Static blasted as they approached the pool.

Herbert looked into the pool, which was completely drained. "There are some Dean Halsey doppelgangers in the pool that are causing the static as well as an item in a baby carriage."

As soon as Herbert finished speaking, Dan leaped into the pool like an action hero with his gun drawn. He landed a little too hard on the concrete floor of the pool and tried not to express how much his ankles hurt out loud. Herbert just walked down the stairs.

"Was that really necessary, Dan?" Herbert asked as he walked over to the baby carriage. "There's no one here that you could impress with a stunt like that." He saw a monster move to attack him and he annihilated it in seconds. He retrieved a snake coin from the carriage. He left the pool and waited semi-patiently for Dan to finish off the other monsters.

They left the pool area and went down an eastern path near the courtyard door. They went through a door at the end of the path and ended up in room 101.

They heard vomiting in the bathroom but decided to look around first. They grabbed everything they could find, then made their way to the bathroom, noticing the pair of legs sticking out of the fridge. They quickly peered into the fridge and noticed that it was the body of a young man that the legs were attached to.

"Poor kid," Dan said. He started gagging because of the blood, wondering why the poor young man was there in the first place. He felt Herbert grab his arm.

"Best not to linger," Herbert said gently, dragging his friend into the bathroom.


	14. Edwin

They saw a large man with brown hair crouched over the toilet. He was wearing a baseball cap in addition to an ill fitting red and white striped shirt and blue shorts, as well as a pair of white socks and black shoes. The man turned his head as he heard Dan and Herbert approached and they saw he had blue-gray eyes.

"It wasn't me! I didn't do it!" the man exclaimed.

"Do what?" Dan and Herbert asked in perfect unison.

"I didn't do anything! I...I swear! He was like this when I got here..."

Both Dan and Herbert were suspicious about him as he also knew the gender of the person in the fridge and decided to discuss it when they were out of the man's range of hearing, much to Herbert's chagrin.

"My name's Dan Cain," Dan said.

"West. Herbert West." He looked at Dan and sighed a little because he was still unable to believe he was going along with this, even if Dan was his friend. "We're making our way through town trying to see if we can find a trace of his girlfriend Meg."

"Um...Edwin."

"Edwin, who's that dead kid stuffed in the fridge in the kitchen?" Dan asked.

"I didn't do it. I swear I didn't kill anybody."

That was when Herbert and Dan were quite sure he was lying.

"That's not what we were asking you," Herbert sighed.

"You're not friends with a..." He thought very carefully about how to phrase a question concerning the corpse that killed Meg. "...half-burnt zombie with one arm, are you?"

"Half-burnt zombie with one arm? I don't know what yer talkin' about. Honest. But I did see some weird lookin' monsters. They scared the hell outta me, so I ran in here." Herbert uttered a monosyllabic laugh and smiled to cover it up when Edwin looked at him.

"Well, I guess this place isn't too safe. What happened here anyway?"

"Uh, I...I told ya, I don't know. I'm not even from this town. I just, I just..."

"You too? Something just brought you here, right?"

"Umm...yeah. You could say that."

"I doubt it's because his car broke down..." Herbert said loudly.

"Herbert!"

"I didn't say anything," he said innocently.

"Well, whatever it is...I think you'd better get out of here soon."

"Yeah, yer right. What about you two?"

"We'll leave as soon as we're done here. Edwin...be careful."

"Dan, Herbert, I...I...um...you be careful, too."


	15. Fire Escape

Herbert and Dan left the bathroom.

"Didn't it seem odd that he's hiding in the bathroom of an apartment that has a dead body in its fridge and how he is quite fixated on insisting that he's innocent?" Herbert asked Dan. "Besides, it's quite odd that he knows the gender of the body of that unfortunate young man in the fridge, so maybe he was lying about him already being dead when he got here."

"Yeah," Dan replied. "I'm having a hard time believing that, especially when he said anybody after I asked him specifically about that body."

"That is one way to prove you're not innocent and not entirely sane. Let's just see what happens if and when we run into him again, and I'm sure we'll run into him again."

They went into the room they didn't explore yet. It contained nothing important, but they saw plenty of soccer posters on the wall and a soccer ball on the floor.

They left the apartment and went into room 104. They heard static, which alerted them to the presence of a Dean Halsey monster. Dan killed it and got a tourist pamphlet off a cabinet.

"'Welcome to Silent Hill! Silent Hill, a quiet little lakeside resort town. We're happy to have you. Take some time out of your busy schedules and enjoy a nice restful vacation here. Row after row of quaint old houses, A gorgeous mountain landscape, and a lake which shows different sides of its beauty with the passing of the day, from sunrise to late afternoons to sunset. Silent Hill will move you and fill you with a feeling of deep peace. I hope your time here will be pleasant and your memories will last forever. Editor: Roger Widmark.' Ha!" He was confused as to why they left out the part about the monsters and fog.

"That's understandable. I feel the same way."

"Really?" Dan asked his friend, amazed Herbert could say that he was having as much of a hard time as he was. "You don't seem affected by this place at all. But, I'm sure the town could find a way to get to you"

"I'm sure it will, it's just a matter of time. I just hope it doesn't."

They went up to the 2nd floor and found themselves in the southern hallway. They walked west until they reached the blue door at the end of the hall. Herbert unlocked the door with the fire escape key.

They found out that the fire escape wasn't a fire escape but a window. They went through it and saw they were in an apartment in a different complex. They saw another person in the room with them and looked at each other in utter confusion.


	16. Blue Creek Apartments

"Where are we?" Dan asked the other person.

"You're in my apartment, room 203 of Blue Creek Apartments. Who are you?"

"We didn't know there would be someone...make that someone else, in here...we're sorry."

They walked towards the bathroom. Dan looked over his shoulder and saw that the other person had disappeared. He looked back at Herbert, confused.

"It seems that there's something that only causes us to feel these changes. I wonder what it is, and it would be worth the time to try and figure it out," Herbert said to Dan.

"If I knew, that would be great." Something caught his eye in the dirty toilet water. "There's something in the toilet bowl." He approached it. "It's a wallet." He reached his hand in and pulled out the wallet. He pulled a slip of paper out of it, shaking off his hand in disgust. "I can't believe I just did that. Eww."

Herbert snatched the slip of paper from Dan. "This looks like a safe combination. Come on, let's go figure this out." He grabbed Dan's arm and dragged him into the living room.

They spotted the safe on a chair in the living room. They walked over to it. Dan knelt and Herbert stood next to him with the combination.

"2. 1. 3. 17."

Dan turned the dial in the appropriate direction to each number. The safe popped open and he took out four boxes of handgun bullets.

"It was now totally worth it to put my hand in that dirty toilet water."

Herbert walked toward the kitchen. "Especially since you are the one that uses the gun."

Herbert returned from the kitchen and they walked into the hall. They found that all the other doors on the floor were locked. However, they saw a note attached to the door of room 209. They thought it might be important and went to take a look at it.


	17. White Door

"'Dear Tim, I have to run an errand so I'm going out. I left the house key with Uncle David (You know where he lives, don't you? The key is in the room near the first floor staircase.). I'll be back as soon as I can, so please watch the place while I'm gone,'" Herbert read. "Good. Let's go downstairs and we can find the key for this apartment."

They walked down the hall until they found the blue stairwell door. They went through the door and found a map of the western building of the complex. Herbert picked it up and handed it to Dan as they went down the stairs. They looked around in the laundry room before continuing on their journey to find the room with the key to room 209.

"The note said the key was in the room by the stairwell," Herbert said. "Which one is that?"

"I don't know," Dan said. "Let's at least see which rooms we can and can't get into. And find the rooms that are open and by the stairwell, so we can narrow down our options."

"Very good, Dan. You're learning well."

"Thanks, and I guess I'm learning from the best." _Oh great,_ he thought. _I just inflated his ego._

Rooms 105 and 109 were the only ones they could get into because of their unlocked doors. They peeked into 105 and saw a large, strange desk. They thought it might be wise to come back to it later. They walked until they reached and entered room 109, which was just beyond the stairway.

Dan looked around after grabbing something from the couch. "There's nothing else here," he noted. "Maybe we should leave."

Herbert pointed out a vibrant white door that only stood a length away from an ebon black door. "Let's check out that door, which is clearly something else here." He went through the door and Dan frantically followed, not wanting to be left behind.

"Wait for me, Herbert!" he shouted.


	18. Angelica

They saw the young woman they met when they first arrived in town. She was lying in front of a mirror and they saw something in her hand that they couldn't quite identify yet. They approached her to talk to her, wondering how she ended up in this version of town as well.

"Oh...it's you two," she said in a tone that was a bit sultry, which was abnormal for her.

"I'm Dan," Dan said.

"I'm Herbert," Herbert added.

"Angelica..."

"Angelica...okay." Dan noticed the item she was holding was a kitchen knife with a small bloodstain on the blade. "I don't know what you're going to do...but there's always another way."

"Really? But you're like me. It's easier just to run. Besides, it's what we deserve."

Herbert saw the hurt and confused look on Dan's face. He also noticed that he looked like he was about to cry. He shot Angelica an accusatory glance. "What do you know about my friend? You just met him."

Dan smiled. "No, I'm not like you."

"Are you afraid?" Her voice returned to its normal timid state. "I...I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Did you find your mother?"

"Not yet...she's not anywhere."

Herbert cleared his throat. "Did she live in this apartment building?"

"I don't know..."

"So all you know is that she lived in this town?"

Angelica turned to directly face them, a firm grip on her knife. "What did you say?" she asked Herbert, angry. She sat up. "How did you know that?"

"You're looking for her here. How else would I know?" he answered, just as angry but a little frightened on the inside due to the fact that he was being stared down by someone suffering schizophrenia and was holding a bloody knife.

Angelica calmed. "Yeah..."

"Am I right?"

"I'm so tired."

Herbert sighed in frustration and Dan knew to talk in his friend's stead. "So why did you come here?"

"I...I'm sorry...what are you doing now?"

"Looking for somebody. Her name's Meg, she's my girlfriend." He found a photo and showed it to her.

Angelica shook her head. "I haven't seen her."

"It's fine. Besides, she's dead. I don't know why I think she's here."

"She's dead?"

"Don't worry. I'm not crazy. I don't think so, at least..."

Angelica stood. "I've gotta find my mom."

"Should we go with you? The town's dangerous."

"I'll be okay alone. I'd just slow you down."

Dan pointed to her knife. "What about that?"

"Will you hold it for me?"

"Sure."

"If I kept it, I don't know what I'd do."

Angelica held out the knife and Dan reached for it. As he was about to grab it, she jerked away.

"No!!" She prepared to use the knife and Dan panicked. Herbert prepared to drag Dan out of her way. "I'm sorry...I've been bad...please don't..." She backed off and put the knife on a desk by the door. She left the room.

"That was way too close...I could've been killed," Dan said, still panicked. He picked up the knife.

"I was actually considering either pushing you out of the way and taking your place or dragging you out of the way."

"Thanks for saying that, Herbert." They left the room.

Herbert got a coin with a woman on it from a nightstand and they left the apartment.


	19. Coins and Key

They remembered the strange desk in room 105 and went into that apartment. They noticed five holes on the desk exactly the same size as the three coins they had collected. Herbert produced them from one of his suit jacket pockets.

"What are we going to do?" Dan asked. He looked around the room for clues.

"Come over here, Dan," Herbert said, still standing by the desk.

"What?" He returned to the desk to see what Herbert had found.

Herbert pointed to the words engraved in the desk. He decided to reread them out loud for Dan's benefit. "'To the right is the lady. To the left is the old one. In the center crawls the other.'" He turned to Dan. "Do you understand what it means, Dan?"

Dan nodded in response. "But you can do the puzzle."

Herbert placed the woman coin in the slot at the very right. He put the old man coin in the slot at the very left. He put the snake coin in the center slot.

Dan noticed there were still two empty slots. "Don't tell me we missed two coins..."

Herbert saw there more words engraved on the desk and pointed them out to Dan. "We didn't, Dan." A smile teased the edge of his lips as he saw his friend's face light up in relief.

The desk opened and Herbert retrieved the key to room 209. They went up to the 2nd floor and Herbert unlocked the door to room 209.

Herbert unlocked room 209's door. They saw a balcony and got onto it from the living room. They crossed over to room 208.


	20. Apartment Boss

Dan quickly grabbed something from a chair as he waited for his friend. Herbert returned from the bedroom with the key to the apartment stairwell. They went back to room 209 on the balcony. They then went back into the hall.

They walked north until they reached the stairwell. Herbert unlocked the door as Dan loaded his gun. They went through and as soon as it closed, Dan backed towards it in terror only to find it was locked. This was only because they were now locked in the flooded stairway with the corpse that killed Meg.

Herbert readied his shovel and splashed down the stairs. He hit the corpse a few times.

Dan calmed down and drew his gun. He walked away from the door and fired a few rounds at the corpse. Herbert turned to face him.

"Thank you for your help, though I'm quite sure I could have managed on my own." He began to hit the corpse with his shovel again.

The fight dragged on in this fashion for a while. The two of them only had to use a few of their health items. They suddenly heard sirens in the distance. Their corpse began to down the stairs and they had no desire to follow him.

As soon as he reached the bottom, they heard a door opening. The water on the stairs began to drain and they figured the corpse might have left the door open. They went down the stairs and through the door. They found themselves outside again.


	21. Rosewater Park

They went down some stairs and towards a fence. They wonder where the corpse and water went. Herbert picked up a first aid kit and they walked back in the direction they came. They saw a path going in the other direction and followed it, then turned a corner.

They walked single file down a narrow path until they reached a wall covered in pictures. They saw Rufus perched atop it like Humpty Dumpty. They approached him and Dan tried to climb the wall. Rufus jumped to the sidewalk and ran off.

"Wait!" Dan shouted.

Herbert grabbed Dan's arm again and dragged him up some stairs, then shortly went back down the stairs. They walked north until they finally reached Rosewater Park.

"We're finally at the park," Dan said happily. "It sure took a while."

"Yes."

They entered the park and traversed up and down a fair amount of stairs.

"How many more sets of stairs could we possibly run into?" Dan asked, panting a little.

They went right and up another set of stairs. They saw a gazebo and a bench. They continued north so they could view the lake from the waterfront.

Dan saw a figure near the water in the distance. "That could be Meg," he said hopefully, causing Herbert to sigh in response. "Stop doing that every time I mention Meg." The rather intimidating and angry glare his friend gave him made him flinch.

They went closer to the person, who was conveniently a woman.

"Meg?" Dan asked.


	22. Maggie

The woman turned around and Dan recoiled. She had bright blond hair with pink tips and bangs and blue eyes, the same blue as Meg's eyes. She was wearing a sky blue leopard print choker with a round gold pendant, midriff baring and long sleeved pink shirt, sky blue leopard print mini skirt with a gold belt, pink finger nail polish and tall brown boots. Dan felt a lump in his throat.

"No...you're not," Dan said, upset. His voice wavered a little.

"Do I look like your girlfriend?"

"Yes...my late girlfriend. I can't believe it. You could be her twin. Your face and your voice...only your hair and your clothes are different."

"My name is...Maggie. I don't look like a ghost, do I?" She took Dan's hand and put it on her chest. "See. Feel how warm I am."

"You're really not Meg."

"Then let's go," Herbert suddenly said.

"I told you, I'm Maggie."

"Sorry, I was confused."

"We could tell that."

Dan quickly glared at Herbert, and then looked back at Maggie.

"Where are you going?"

"My friend Herbert and I are looking for Meg. Have you seen her?"

"Didn't you say she died?"

"Pretty recently. But I just feel she's here, in some sort of 'special place.'"

"And that's somewhere in this town? Anyway, I haven't seen her. What kind of 'special place' could it be besides here?"

"A hotel. Maybe the one on the lake I've heard about."

"The Lakeview Hotel? So, a hotel's a 'special place,' huh? I bet it is." Dan cringed at her implication.

Dan walked toward Herbert. "Let's go."

"That's the smartest thing you've said so far."

"Don't get so mad," she said. "I was just joking. Anyway, it's not that way." She pointed in the opposite direction of the way Dan and Herbert were going. "It's that way."

They started to walk off again, and Maggie followed them.

"You're coming with us?" Dan asked.

"You were just going to leave me?"

"No, but..."

"With all these monsters around?"

"No, I just..."

"You shouldn't let her stop you mid-sentence, Dan."

"I'm here all alone. Everyone else is gone..." She leaned against a railing. "I look like Meg, don't I?" she asked. "You loved her, right? Or maybe you hated her..."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Dan said angrily. He and Herbert started walking again.

She began to follow again. "So it's okay?"

"What do you think?" Herbert asked. He made a point of giving her a look that dripped with anger and that told her he was aware of the type of person she was in regards to Dan, and also that he had no intention of losing Dan to her.

"Yeah, fine," Dan said. Herbert looked at him, his expression showing that he felt betrayed. "I'm sorry, but we can't leave Maggie alone."


	23. Rest at Last

They walked west until they reached the other side of the park. They went up the stairs to their left. Herbert lagged behind Dan and Maggie the entire way, not at all excited about the fact that he lost the one person he could trust and consider a friend to an untrustworthy woman, and one that looked like Megan Halsey who tried to get Dan to stop working with him not so long ago. He was also disappointed that Dan would start chasing tail at a time like this in a town like this, and once again that the object of his friend's affection looked the way she did. Dan looked over his shoulder at Herbert, only to quickly look forward again, feeling guilty for what he did.

As soon as they were past all other path openings they saw a small building ahead of them. They walked past the building and saw a mannequin seemingly guarding a health drink. Dan killed the monster and Herbert got the item. As he returned to the group, Dan gave Herbert a quick, gentle pat on the shoulder. Herbert was amazed when Dan didn't walk right back over to Maggie.

"I really am sorry," Dan told him. "How about I walk back here with you."

Herbert turned to Dan. He smiled a little inwardly, happy that no woman could really get Dan to leave him. "I would like that." He began to feel better and smiled a little.

They made their way south until they stepped foot onto Nathan Avenue. Herbert was now feeling better, but still didn't trust Maggie. He decided to take charge of the group and Dan knew somebody had to catch up with him to keep him company.

Dan pulled out the map and got the attention of his companions. They each stood at his side as he pointed out a certain spot on the map. "There's an inn we should be reaching soon." He remembered that he and Herbert were still carrying their luggage with them everywhere they went. "Maybe we could get a room there to stay in or at least keep our luggage in."

"Wonderful idea," Herbert said.

They reached the inn and once again saw other people around. To them, this was a good sign they could get a room, possibly in both senses of the phrase.


	24. The Inn

They walked into the main building of the inn. Herbert looked back for a moment and noticed that Maggie was no longer with them. A delighted smile spread across his face because he was happy the competition for Dan was gone. He decided to withhold this detail from Dan until they got settled.

Dan approached the woman behind the front counter. "I'd like to get a room, if there are any vacancies."

"Here's your keys," the woman said. She handed Dan the keys to room 203. "Enjoy your stay."

"We're in room 203," Dan said to Herbert.

They went upstairs and found their room. They set their luggage down and sat on their beds.

Dan looked at the empty space next to him. "Where's Maggie?" he asked confused, scared and upset.

"I have no idea, Dan," Herbert said, acting completely innocent. He only failed to tell Dan that he knew that Maggie was probably only an illusion created by the town for his friend's sake because that would make him angry and he would lose him as a research partner. He would be alright on his own and might enjoy it, but he really liked Dan's company and he wasn't half bad as an assistant. An uncomfortable smile spread across his face due to what he was just about to say. "Maybe we should go look for her."

Dan's face lit up. "Let's do that." He jumped up out of his bed in a good mood.

Herbert shuddered at what actions he had just caused. "Yes." He stood and followed Dan out of the room, remembering to grab the room keys.

As soon as they got outside they saw the fog again. Maggie was in the parking lot, a look of impatience on her face. Herbert audibly groaned, upset she wasn't gone for good. _Why did she have to stick around? _he thought to himself as he and Dan went to join her.


	25. Pipe Time

"Where were you?" Maggie asked. She began walking to meet her dear Dan and that annoying friend of his halfway.

"We were getting a room at the inn," Dan said, walking over to Maggie. They hugged. "I'm sorry we forgot you." They kissed for a moment, causing Herbert to gag out loud specifically so they could hear him.

Herbert grabbed the map from Dan. He began to walk back onto Nathan from the parking lot. "Are you two going to join me or should I do the rest of this myself?"

Dan let go of Maggie and ran after Herbert. "Wait!" He turned around and took Maggie's hand. They walked until they caught up with Herbert. Dan got the map back.

They went to the Texxon gas station they saw at the intersection with Carroll. They heard a running engine and found the car that was the source of the noise. Dan grabbed a steel pipe from the car.

"It's nice to have an extra weapon," Dan commented. "But who would use it?"

They explored the rest of the station. By this time, they wished they had some sort of tote bag for all of the items they had found around town.

"This town is very generous with items, isn't it?" Herbert asked Dan.

"It sure is."

They left the gas station and made their way to Sanford Street. They hoped to cross the bridge by the Historical Society to get to the hotel, but they found that it was in ruins. They searched for clues as to what their next move should be when Dan spotted a corpse. There was a map by the corpse, which Herbert was kept away from. They saw all points of interest in the area with the exception of Pete's Bowl-O-Rama were crossed off. They set off for the bowling alley after locating it on the map.


	26. Gone Bowling

They found the double doors that served as the entrance to the bowling alley at the north side of the building. Herbert got a first aid kit from the grass near the entrance. Dan joined him and they began to go inside, noticing that Maggie hadn't budged.

"I'll wait here," she finally said. "I hate bowling."

"We didn't come here to play, aren't you are aware of that?" Herbert asked, brows knitted and arms on hips in anger.

"Hurry back, Dan, okay," Maggie said to Dan. She glared at Herbert to let him know she didn't feel the same way about him. He just smiled at her in return.

They went inside and saw Rufus and Edwin together. Edwin was sitting in a booth, eating pizza. Rufus was sitting on the table next to him, and it almost looked like he had a questioning expression on his feline face.

"I didn't do anything like that," Edwin responded to the look on the cat's face.

Rufus was practically laughing at him, or would be if cats could.

"Why did you have to say that?" Edwin asked, hurt.

The cat gave him another questioning look.

"No, I just ran 'cause I was scared. I don't know what the cops are doing." He noticed that Rufus' body language had changed again. "It's no good. They wouldn't listen. Nobody will ever forgive me."

Edwin noticed Dan and Herbert. "Did you two find the lady you were looking for...what's her name...Meg?" he asked them.

Dan and Herbert approached him. They saw that he was still sitting in the booth eating pizza. However, Rufus had disappeared. "Edwin?"

"Oh...umm, yer..."

"Dan Cain."

"West. Herbert West."

"We met each other in the apartment building," Dan and Herbert said together.

"Yeah, I remember, but..."

"Are you alone here, Edwin?"

"Uh, no..."

They heard some unearthly meowing coming from the other direction. They turned and saw Rufus by the door. Rufus opened the door by pushing it and ran out.

"Wait! Come back!" Dan shouted. "Let's go after him!"

Herbert had to hide his laughter over Dan's frustration behind his hand, but it didn't muffle well.

"Huh? Rufus? But why...?"

"This town's full of monsters! How can you sit there and eat pizza?"

"He seems fine by himself...I'd just slow him down."

Herbert and Dan walked off. "Forget you..." Herbert said in an annoyed tone for both himself and Dan.

"We might as well look around the place for items," Dan said. "We are already here, and this might be another location that's got a lot to share."

"What a wonderful idea, Dan."

Dan went to the end of the third lane from the right. He came back with some ammo and they left the building through the doors used by Rufus. Maggie was nowhere in sight.

"I thought Maggie would be waiting," Herbert said to Dan. He grinned smugly, partially in Dan's direction.

"We should look for her." Herbert frowned at Dan. "I'm sorry."

They began to go east and that was when Maggie ran toward them. She was out of breath, and it seemed like she was chasing something or someone.

"Did a black cat run out of here?" Dan asked.

"Yeah, it was too fast for me! Aren't you gonna go after it?"

They turned right and went through the side parking lot. They turned a corner and saw a gate not too far away. They went through and headed south until they hit a dead end. Dan and Herbert looked through the small space between buildings.

"It went through there," Maggie told them.

"Is there any other way?" Dan asked.

"Yeah, there is." Maggie pointed at a door they passed. "Right through there."

They approached the door. Dan went in front of Herbert and Maggie and tried to open it.

"No good, it's locked."

Maggie shoved him out of the way and got a key from her waist. She unlocked a lock with it. She got another one out of her boot, which she used on the second lock. She turned away from the men and put her hand down her shirt. Dan stepped up and tried to put his head over her shoulder to see where the third key was, and he could barely feel Herbert tugging him away. She turned back and unlocked the last lock with the last key.


	27. Heaven's Night

They went through the door and up the stairs to their right. They then went through the green door at the end of the hall. The room they entered contained a bar, stage and some tables and chairs. The walls had colorful neon signs on them. One told them that they were in Heaven's Night in pretty pink and purple letters. Another was a woman posing in a suggestive manner with the word paradise above her. Herbert went to the second table in the room and got a first aid kit from its chair. He was happy he finally had some evidence to hold over Maggie to get her to leave Dan alone forever.

"This place sure explains quite a lot about your female friend," Herbert told Dan. "I thought something like this might be her occupation. I'm amazed I was right."

"It does, I guess," Dan said. Herbert was even happier Dan was oblivious to what he actually meant by his statement. Dan looked around for a while. "I don't think there's anything else important here."

He went toward a gray door and Herbert followed him. They went through the door, Dan wondering where Maggie had gone. They went down the stairs and found her waiting for them.

They headed out to the road, which was Carroll Street, or so Dan told them after consulting the map. They headed south after finding out the road north was blocked. Suddenly, Maggie pointed down the street.

"Over there!" Herbert and Dan saw that she was pointing at Rufus.

They saw Rufus go into a nearby building. They followed him and saw that the building was Brookhaven Hospital. They turned a corner and saw the double doors that served as the entrance.

"A hospital, now this should be interesting," Herbert said.

"Hospitals we know," Dan said.

"That's why it should be interesting, this hospital will probably be out of the ordinary."

They went through the doors.


	28. Brookhaven

Dan got the map of the hospital from a bulletin board near the entrance. They went through the door to reception and Herbert stopped briefly at the desk before they went through the door near Maggie. There was nothing much in the room besides the typewriter on the desk. They approached the typewriter and Herbert picked up a key.

They returned to the hall and went up to the 2nd floor. Herbert looked at their surroundings, which seemed familiar to him. He also believed they should be familiar to Dan, but he was sure Dan was too busy with the woman trying to replace him.

"We seem to be in the employee wing," Herbert said, nudging Dan as gently as he could. This caused Dan to look up and notice their surroundings.

"I was about to say..." They heard static. "Wait a minute." He looked forward. "Guys..."

They saw some nurses in front of them. Not the nicest looking ones, though. These had no faces and their dark white, short and low cut dresses were covered in blood. They were holding rusty steel pipes.

"Of course there would be nurses like these in a hospital like this," Herbert said. "Especially in this town."

Dan whipped out his gun and shot at the nurses as they walked toward him slowly and stiffly. Their heads jiggled as they walked. They fell to the ground and began twitching. Herbert finished them off with his shovel and they turned a corner to their left. They went into the women's locker room.

"We shouldn't be in here," Dan said nervously. "It just doesn't feel right."

"Oh, Dan, it's not like we'll be caught. We're the only ones here," Herbert reassured him.

"That's true. Thanks for that."

They saw a teddy bear and went over to it. Dan picked it up and felt something prick his finger from inside. He almost dropped the bear.

"What's wrong?" Maggie asked.

"I just pricked myself..."

"Are you okay?" The tone in her voice was sarcastic for some reason.

"Yeah." Dan pulled a bent needle out of the bear. He sucked some excess blood off his wound.

"I really hope you are," Herbert said.

"Thanks, Herbert."


	29. Dan Cain, Dr Shotgun

They further investigated the room and Dan found a shotgun in an open locker. He pulled it out and grinned, while checking it out. The barrel and trigger are dark gray and the handle was brown. He checked the round capacity and the max was 6, 4 less than the gun he had now. He decided the shotgun would be better and put the handgun in a safe place.

They left and entered the men's locker room on the other side of the hall. They saw a bloody lab coat and Herbert got the examination room key out of one of the pockets.

They went downstairs and Herbert unlocked the door to the examination room with the key. They went in and found nothing of importance, so they went through the other door in the room. They ended up in the doctor's lounge. Herbert did a quick examination of the finger Dan injured on the needle in the teddy bear.

"It'll be fine," he told his friend. "It just needs a bandage." He took one out of one of their first aid kits and placed it on Dan's finger.

"Thank you." He went to the sink and found some ammo for his new shotgun.

They went over to a white board and saw that the code to the 3rd floor patient wing was 7335. They went through a door by the white board and went back up to the 2nd floor.

They went through the double doors near the stairs and Dan sat down on a stool, tired from all the walking they had been doing up to now. He felt himself sit on something and picked up a box of bullets. They went down the hall and into Examining Room 3, which was to their right. There was a desk at the back of the room that had a typewriter and another item for their collection. They went over to check out the typewriter and Herbert grabbed the item.

"There's no paper in there." Dan sighed, disappointed.

"But the imprint of whatever was typed is still visible on the carbon paper," Herbert said, more than a bit irritated.

"Right...I see a number...four digits...2815."

They returned to the hall then entered room M2. Herbert found the Lapis Eye key in the nightstand drawer and Dan a box of shotgun shells off the top of the nightstand. They went in room M3 and Dan killed a bubblehead nurse, as they decided to call them. Herbert and Dan got more items and ammo.

They went into room M6.


	30. Injury

Dan saw some shotgun shells by Maggie and picked them up. There was a nurse in the room with them and it seemed she was guarding a health drink. Dan distracted the nurse by fighting her while Herbert went for the health drink. As he returned with it, the nurse began to swing her pipe. Dan shot the arm holding the pipe clean off her body because he was in close range with the shotgun, causing the pipe to fly backward and hit Herbert in the side. He began to stagger and Dan caught him before he fell to the floor. He stood and saw his friend try to do the same, only to crumple to the floor and try unsuccessfully to hold back a pained cry. Dan knelt and ran his fingers down Herbert's side, deciding this situation called for an impromptu examination. Herbert flinched and yelped when Dan reached his middle ribs.

"They feel like they're either badly injured or broken," Dan informed his friend.

"I'll be fine," Herbert insisted.

"You can barely stand up."

"You do whatever you feel you need to do."

"But you'll keep on insisting that you'll be fine."

Dan supported his friend and helped him walk as they went up to the 3rd floor. They found a first aid kit on the floor in the northeastern section of the employee wing and Dan used it on his friend's injury, hoping that it would at least relieve some of the pain he was going through. Maggie watched all of this unfold, confused as to why Dan would be helping Herbert and upset that she wasn't having attention paid to her. She vowed to herself to get Dan alone with her, the sooner the better. Dan made sure that Herbert and Maggie were out of the way when he battled two nurses.

They went to the double doors that led to the patient wing and saw the keypad.

"Does anybody remember the code?" Dan asked.

Herbert joined him, a little limp in his step. "It was 7335."

Dan typed the numbers and heard the doors unlock. "Thanks."

"This is my way of saying thank you for the first aid kit."

They went through the doors. Maggie and Dan went into room S3, Maggie throwing an "I win" grin back at Herbert as she went through the door. Herbert wasn't expecting them to come out any time soon, so he walked down the hall on his own. That was when he saw a young man about his age with red hair and blue eyes fall down dead. Herbert approached the body and a nurse jumped out at him very unexpectedly. As they fought, he noticed the laser burn on her head. After he killed her, he wondered why the only person that could do this would be in the town and got frightened. He knelt by the corpse and saw it was still fresh. He got out his reagent and a syringe.


	31. Bob

Herbert injected his reagent into the young man's brain from the back of his neck, not bothering to notice that the corpse was dressed exactly like him. He waited until the young man finally returned to life. He stood and the young man did the same. They began to walk back to room S3 in the hopes they could catch up with Dan. Herbert did this by literally running into him.

"There you are, Dan," he said, readjusting his glasses. "Why isn't Maggie with you?"

Dan turned around and jumped, barely aware that Herbert and his reanimated companion were there. "Hi, Herbert," he said. "She wasn't feeling well, so she's resting." He pointed at the reanimated young man, whom he noticed was wearing the same outfit as Herbert. "Who is he?"

"I'm a poignant corpse, or was supposed to be. When your friend here saw me die, it was supposed to help him go crazy and add to the atmosphere of the place. I didn't expect him to bring me back to life, and I'm still a little angry about it."

Dan turned to Herbert, arms crossed. "What did you do?" he asked.

"Didn't you just hear him say that I brought him back to life?"

"Did you use your reagent?"

"How else would I have brought him back to life?"

The young man cleared his throat and they turned to look at him. "Calm down you two, you sound like a married couple."

"What should we do about you?" Dan asked. _Herbert and I sound like a married couple… _ he mused to himself. _That's disturbing and true all at the same time._

"Please don't kill me again. To be honest, being dead sucked."

"You could come with us if you want," Herbert said. He would enjoy the young man's company, and would also enjoy using him to send Dan into guilt trips. "What's your name?"

"Remember, poignant corpse."

"We'll call you Bob."

Dan held up a key. "This key is for the roof. Let's go."

They all headed for the roof.


	32. Roof Encounter

When they got to the roof, they were glad they had their flashlights and it was better that there were two of them. The pitch darkness put them on edge. They were especially put off by how suddenly and inexplicably it had become dark.

Herbert saw a turquoise diary near some scattered pieces of paper. He picked it up and Dan and Bob ran over to join him. They counted on him to read it since he found it.

"'May 9, rain. Stared out the window all day. Peaceful here - nothing to do. Still not allowed to go outside. May 10, still raining. Talked with the doctor a little. Would they have saved me if I didn't have a family to feed? I know I'm pathetic, weak. Not everyone can be strong. May 11, rain again. The meds made me feel sick today. If I'm only better when I'm drugged, then who am I anyway? May 12, rain as usual. I don't want to cause any more trouble for anyone, but I'm a bother either way. Can it really be a sin to run instead of fight? Some people may say so, but they don't have to live in my shoes. It may be selfish, but it's what I want. It's too hard like this. It's just too hard.... May 13, it's clear outside. The doctor's told me I've been released - that I've got to go home. I...' The diary ends here. What was a diary doing up here in the first place?" Dan and Bob shrugged.

They walked over to the stairwell door, wanting to get back to the hospital. The door didn't open, no matter how much Dan jiggled the doorknob.

"The door won't open. Something is holding it closed from the other side. It won't open no matter how hard I try."

They walked to another door and Dan tried to open it. He was unsuccessful again. "It looks like the lock's broken. I can't open it."

They walked around. Herbert touched the fencing. "It's rusty and unstable. That can't be good. We could very well die if we fell because of it breaking."

They heard something approach them from behind. They turned around and saw Meg's reanimated killer. He lurched forward and knocked them backward into the unstable, rusty fencing. The fencing gave way and they were knocked off the roof into the dark, seemingly to their deaths. They saw the reanimated corpse peering at them from over the edge of the roof, and hoped he wasn't the last thing they see.

They woke up in a new area, badly injured from the fall. Both Herbert and Bob sat up promptly after gulping down a few health drinks each, but Dan didn't seem like he was doing well. Herbert stood and walked over to Dan. He knelt next to him and pulled out one of their many first aid kits.

"I'm surprised that fall didn't kill us," Herbert said, using the first aid kit on Dan. He looked down at his friend. "I'm sure you'll feel better now." Dan took Herbert's empty hand and used it to slowly distance himself from the floor.

"Thanks, Herbert."

"I don't want anything to happen to you because you're very important to me."

Dan smiled at Herbert as they all stood, trying to figure out just where they were.

"It seems we're back in the hospital," Herbert said.

"But where?" Dan asked.

"You're the one with the map."

"Right, I am." He pulled out the map. "We're in the Special Treatment Room."

They followed a trail of something on the floor. They saw a cell that belonged in a mental hospital was open and they entered it. A feeling of claustrophobia set in as they noticed words and a 4-digit number written in blood on the white, padded wall.

"That number is...2684," Dan said. "The words below it are 'Tern tern tern the numbers better not forget them. So I'll right them down here. The other one, my secret name.' What does that last part mean?"

"I have no idea," Herbert responded.

"Neither do I," Bob added. "At least those numbers might be helpful."

They left the cell, and then left the room through the entrance doors. They found the doors that led to the patient wing of the 3rd floor and went through them. They walked down the hall, checking whether or not doors were locked. They went into the first unlocked room they found and saw that it was the shower room. They all noticed strange green goo oozing down the drain and walked over to get a closer look.

Dan went over to the drain to really see what is going on with it. He turned to look at Bob and Herbert. "There's something stuck in the drainage pipe. The hole is too small. I can't get my hand inside to reach it, so I don't think either of you could. Maybe if I had a long, narrow tool of some kind..."

They went into room S11. They looked around the room to see if they could find anything to help with the item stuck in the drain. They didn't find anything that could, but Herbert got a health drink from the tipped over nightstand. They went into the hall and made their way to room S14.

They saw a strange box on the bed with plenty of locks on it and remembered the two keys and the codes from the carbon paper and cell wall. Herbert and Dan used the keys. Bob put the numbers 2815 on one of the locks and Dan 2684 on the other one. Dan opened the box.


	33. Cat Found

"There's nothing in here," Dan said, a little disappointed for getting nothing after having to do all that work.

Herbert walked to his side, not believing what his friend had said. "Look a little closer," he told Dan. "There's something in there."

Dan closely scrutinized the contents of the box. "You're right. There are a few pieces of hair in here."

"Maybe we could use the hair with something to reach into the drain in the shower room," Bob said, those being his first words since they had completed unlocking the box.

"Wonderful idea," Dan said. "But what could we combine it with?"

Herbert looked deep in thought, or that was what it looked like to Dan and Bob. He smiled and looked up at the others having suddenly remembered something. "What about that bent needle you got from the teddy bear, Dan?"

"Yeah, that could work. Alright, let's go back to the shower room."

That was what they did. Their reward for their hard work was the key to the patient wing elevator. That was where they went next and they used the elevator to go to the 1st floor. They went into room C3 and Dan got a few boxes of ammo.

They then went into room C2. They went to the back of the room and saw Rufus.

"Rufus," Dan said.

The cat turned around to face the group upon hearing his master's voice. He walked over a table to get closer to them.


	34. Locked in with the Enemy!

Dan tried to figure things out by talking to his reanimated cat. Bob and Herbert quickly looked at each other, both wondering how exactly this would help. The cat jumped off his table and walked toward the door.

"I think we should follow him," Dan said.

"Why?" Herbert and Bob asked at the same time. They looked at each other again. Bob shrugged at Herbert still unable to figure out why they were speaking and acting alike.

"I think he can help us find Meg."

"I'll take your word for that," Herbert said.

They opened the door and went out into the hall, Rufus with them. He had a key in his mouth. He suddenly went off in a different direction and the group followed him. He dropped the key on the floor and pushed it toward Dan. Dan picked up the key and unlocked the door.

"Is Meg in there?" Dan asked Rufus.

The cat did something that looked like nodding. Herbert didn't entirely trust the cat, but he and Bob still went in the room. It was mostly because they wanted to stay with Dan so he couldn't get in trouble, badly injured or worse. Herbert was also concerned about his friend's mental status, though he wouldn't admit it to Dan's face.

They slowly walked into the room after Rufus. They started to look around the room for Meg and that's when Rufus sneaked toward the door.

"Rufus?" Dan asked as they walked further in. They walked toward a desk and heard the door slam.

They turned after the sound had stopped.

"Rufus?" Dan asked.

They rushed to the door. Dan rattled the doorknob, hoping that they would get out of the room.

Rufus meowed in a teasing manner from the other side of the door.

"Open the door," Dan said to his cat. They all imagined Rufus on the other side of the door, shaking his feline head in response.

Herbert and Bob looked around while Dan continued to bang on the door in desperation.

"Rufus!" Dan yelled.

Rufus continued to meow in a snotty way.

"Open up you mad...!" Dan shouted with all his might. Rufus meowed smugly. "Rufus!"

Herbert noticed that Dan looked like he was going to start begging and like he was going to strain under the pressure of still being in the room. "We'll find a way out of here, don't worry." He walked over to his friend and put a hand on his shoulder. "Just take a deep breath."

Dan heard a noise from Rufus that could be an insult. His hand dropped from the doorknob and he turned. He and Herbert noticed Bob staring fixedly at the ceiling.

They followed his line of sight and saw two odd-looking monsters hanging downwards. Dan whipped out his shotgun.

Dan stepped in front of Herbert, knowing he couldn't fight monsters like these with a shovel and also because he didn't want him to get hurt or worse, and approached the monsters. He looked briefly at Bob, thinking that he could help with the fight. He gave him the handgun.

"Could you help me?" Dan asked Bob.

"Sure."

"Thanks."

"I'll fight one and you fight the other," Bob suggested. Dan nodded in agreement and they both took aim at one of the monsters.

Herbert stood by, feeling the sting of being left out. "Is there any way I could help?" he asked, hoping the others weren't too busy fighting to hear him.

Dan looked at Herbert for a split second. "If either of us get hurt, you can give us some of those healing items. And you could also give us spare ammo if and when we need it."

"I'll do just that, if it is necessary." Herbert sighed out of boredom.

Dan and Bob defeated the monsters after a long, arduous fight. They didn't notice that a third monster the same as the other two dropped from the ceiling. It began to attack Dan.

Herbert noticed this and tried to warn his friend by jerking his head in the direction of the monster. Dan did nothing so Herbert had to take action, say something or take the attack. He finally decided he would do two of the three, if not all three.

"Look out!" Herbert shouted. He ran full speed toward Dan.

Dan crossed his arms. "I'm not falling for that again, Herbert," he said, recalling the first time Herbert said those words when they had to deal with the real reanimated Rufus.

"Really, Dan, I assure you I'm not saying this for my personal pleasure this time." He pushed Dan out of the way and got strangled by the creature's feet in place of his friend. He looked seemingly lifeless and limp.

"Herbert!" As he ran to his friend's side he hoped that he wasn't dead. He felt a pulse and practically began to cry tears of joy, glad he wasn't going to lose another important person to death by asphyxiation.

That was when the monster tried to drag Herbert up into the ceiling with it. He looked at Bob and Bob nodded in recognition of what Dan wanted to do. They both aimed their guns at the monster and fired away. Herbert fell back to the floor and awoke, albeit in pain and gasping for breath. Bob and Dan continued to fire until the monster was dead. They all looked up at the ceiling, and sighed in relief when nothing happened. They heard the distant sound of sirens.

Herbert quickly noticed that Dan looked unusually faint. "Dan, are you alright?"

Unfortunately, Dan seemed to be somewhere else. He felt like he was being taken along a hospital hallway on a stretcher. "Dan...Dan...Dan," he heard Meg/Maggie's voice whisper.

"Dan..." Herbert said. His face was the first thing a groggy, half-awake Dan saw.

"Great to see you're okay," Bob added.


	35. Nightmare Hospital

They looked around to see where they were and discovered that they were outside again. They seemed to be in some sort of garden, but didn't know hospitals could have such a thing. Their surroundings weren't the same as before. The mist had disappeared and it was pitch dark like when they were on the roof.

"What is going on?" Dan asked out loud to nobody in particular.

Herbert looked particularly stumped, which was unusual for him. Dan smiled at his friend sympathetically and gave him a quick pat on the shoulder. Herbert turned a little red in response. Bob shrugged and they went back inside, Dan quickly picking up a box of shotgun shells.

The interior of the hospital had also changed. The building looked rusty and a little bloody. They made their way into room C2, where they heard the radio issue static. They saw a nurse, as well as a first aid kit. Bob and Dan fought the nurse while Herbert retrieved the first aid kit. They heard glass break as they went toward the door to leave the room, but didn't know where the sound originated as there was no glass in the room.

They went into room C4 and were nearly ambushed by a nurse. Herbert killed her and also picked up a health drink. Dan got some bullets. They left the room and located the elevator.

They went up to the 2nd floor. They went into room M4, where they encountered two nurses.


	36. Find the Basement's Basement

Bob and Dan concentrated on the nurses. Herbert walked around the room and picked up a couple of items. The group soon found out that one of the nurses wasn't down for the count and had stood back up. She made her way in Herbert's direction and began to raise her pipe. Dan knew what was about to happen and stepped in front of his friend to take the hit for him in exchange for how Herbert had helped him earlier.

"The both of you might want to duck," Bob said. He aimed his gun as Dan and Herbert ducked. He fired his gun and killed the nurse.

"Thanks," Dan said. "I wasn't really all that excited about getting hit by a pipe."

"Would you have wanted me to get injured again, possibly quite seriously this time?" Herbert asked. He immediately felt hurt, but it didn't show in his voice.

They left the room and walked down the hall to room M6.

"That came out wrong..." Dan admitted.

They entered the room. They all grabbed a few items, including the standard health items and ammo, as well as a couple of dry cell batteries and the key to the basement storeroom from various locations around the room. They quickly looked over a memo telling them they had to find a ring in the "basement's basement," which confused them as there was no such thing as a basement's basement in the standard hospital.

They walked down the hall in the hopes that they could get to the basement right away. They tried to open the doors to the employee wing, only to find they were closed. They knew they had to find another way to get there.

They briefly peeked into the day room and saw a fridge tipped over on its side. They decided to check it out again later and went to the 3rd floor in the elevator.


	37. Maggie's Gone

On their journey down the 3rd floor they noticed a beautifully painted but at the same time odd door. It depicted a few women in colorful dresses. One of the women had her hands sticking out of the door in 3D. They just walked past the door figuring they could do nothing about it at the present moment.

They turned to the right and entered room S11. Bob and Herbert got some items from the nightstand. They left the room and went down the hall until they returned to room S3 where Dan and Maggie were together, which led to Bob being reanimated by Herbert who had felt betrayed again. They all went in when Dan insisted on checking in on his female friend, ignoring how very upset Herbert was even though it hurt a little to do it.

He saw that she was no longer in her bed and looked quite upset. Bob was utterly confused, not really knowing who Maggie was and why she was important to Dan. However, Herbert had a smile spread across his face, happy that the person who was meddling with his relationship with Dan was gone, hopefully for good. Their only company in the room was the sound of heavy breathing like someone unseen was watching them. Dan looked around, trying to find out who was, only to find it was neither himself nor his companions. He suddenly realized that something bad could be happening to Maggie, and hoped it wasn't as bad as what Meg had gone through.

They left the room, the smile still on Herbert's face. They found the doors that were the entrance to the employee wing and went through them, now knowing they could make their way to the basement. They entered a storeroom and found plenty of helpful items on a shelf in the back of the room.

They left the room and found the stairway door, then finally made their way to the basement.


	38. Basement's Basement and Maggie Found

As they reached the bottom of the stairwell they heard a very strange screeching noise. Dan began to breathe heavily as they went through the door. Herbert looked at him comfortingly for a fraction of a second and Dan didn't know whether to feel better or be a little scared.

Herbert unlocked the door to the basement storeroom with the key. The room looked in ruins and no one knew the cause. Dan got some ammo of the floor.

"Do either of you have any idea why there are bloody handprints on the bookshelf?" he asked, looking around the room.

"It is possible they were caused by someone who had been injured and was trying to get to safety," Herbert suggested.

"Or, like me, they're just there to help you go crazy," Bob added as his view on the matter.

They all pushed the shelf and it moved. They continued pushing until a ladder was revealed.

"I bet this will get us to the basement's basement," Dan said as they began to climb down the ladder.

Suddenly, Maggie burst through the door and they came back up the ladder. Herbert's happy mood quickly turned into an unhappy one, which he was used to by now because of her and her meddlesome ways. Bob gave him a pat on the back, as Dan got closer to Maggie.

"Dan!" Maggie shouted.

"Meg!" Dan said hopefully. Then he suddenly remembered it was his fiancée's doppelganger. "Oh, Maggie, it's you...I thought you were...sorry."

Maggie shook her head.

"Anyway, I'm glad you're alive..." Dan continued.

Maggie was furious and Dan gulped nervously. "'Anyway'!? What do you mean, 'anyway'!? You don't sound very happy to see me. I was almost killed back there. Why didn't you try to save me? All you care about is that dead girlfriend of yours! I've never been so scared in my whole life! You couldn't care less about me, could you?" She looked away, but quickly turned her head back.

"How were we supposed to know you were in danger?" Bob asked. "You weren't actually in the room where Dan left you, so we couldn't have been there to save you."

"Bob's right," Herbert said.

"No, I just..." Dan began. Maggie buried her head in his shoulder.

"Then stay with me! Don't ever leave me alone! You're supposed to take care of me!" She began to cry, and her tears seemed rehearsed to an upset Herbert who had an entirely different take on the phrase "take care of me" floating around in his thoughts. He made sure he would carry out his version of the phrase at some time, naturally when Dan didn't know. Dan hugged her and Herbert felt backstabbed. She let go of Dan. "So what about Rufus? Did you find him?"

"Yeah, but he ran away."

"We've got to find him!" Maggie made it seem that finding the cat was important.

"You really seem to care about him. Do you know him?"

"I've never met him before. I just feel sorry for him. He's alone and for some reason...I feel I have to protect him."

Herbert stepped to Dan's side ready to tell Maggie what he thought of her. "I will not have a promising and hard working person like Dan hanging around with a person of your base occupation. I knew exactly what kind of job you had once we got into that club, and I just want to know how many other men you were close to before Dan you..." He had to choose the right word to get his point across. "...whore."

Maggie walked right over to Herbert and sharply slapped him across the face. "Don't call me that again, you psychotic creep!"

Herbert stared between her and a passive Dan in shock. He tried to smile to cover up his pain but he couldn't even begin to do it.


	39. Creepy Radio Programs are Fun

Herbert looked stunned and rubbed the side of his face, which wasn't the only thing that hurt. The slap stung, and he swore he could feel blood welling up where her nails had fallen. He stormed off toward the ladder, silent as the grave, trying to fight back tears. He gave Dan a look of disbelief as he passed him, not sure why he didn't do a thing if he was the friend he claimed to be. Bob followed close behind him, hoping he could talk to him.

"Herbert..." Dan said, feeling guilty for not doing anything. "I'm sorry." He went toward the ladder, Maggie at his side.

They saw a copper ring in the middle of the floor at the bottom of the ladder. Herbert picked it up and went right back up the ladder, Bob in tow. Dan still felt awful and wished he had said something, but wasn't sure Herbert was quite ready to talk to him or anyone else for that matter. He also thought about how many times he had already apologized and wasn't sure Herbert would even believe him this time.

They all returned to the 3rd floor and went to the elevator. It was then that Maggie suggested the ring could help with the fridge on the 2nd floor.

"Hi there everybody," a voice suddenly said from the radio. An audience cheered in the background. "Welcome to another exciting edition of 'Trick or Treat'! Here you either answer the questions correctly and win a great prize, or fail to answer correctly and receive the punishment. It all depends on you. And our lucky, or should I say unlucky, challenger today is Dan. Dan Cain!" Dan looked shocked. "Are you ready to play 'Trick or Treat'?" They listened carefully to all questions and answer options. "Well, that's the last of our questions. When you know the answers, head to the storeroom on the 3rd floor to collect your prizes. But be careful. If you're wrong..." The announcer laughed. "Well then everybody, thanks for tuning in. See you again sometime. Bye bye!"

"What was that?" Maggie asked, confused.

They got off the elevator.


	40. Confrontation

They went into the day room to open the fridge. Dan went over to the fridge, and the others just stood by. He tried opening it, but it wouldn't budge.

"You can't open it?" Maggie asked.

Dan stood up. "Yeah...could you give me a hand?"

"Come on. You're supposed to be the big man around here...how am I supposed to help?" She joined him at the fridge.

Bob did the same. "Do you want to help us, Herbert?" he asked. He saw Herbert shake his head almost mournfully and smiled at him in the hopes that he would cheer up soon. "Alright, we'll give you your space."

The three of them opened the fridge. Maggie reached in the fridge and pulled out a lead ring, which she examined in the light.

"What's this?" she asked. "Not very cute, is it?" She gave the ring to Dan. "Dan, you take it."

"Thanks," Dan said. He slipped the ring into Herbert's hand, making sure Maggie didn't see him do it. "I really am sorry that she slapped you and called you a psychotic creep and I'm sorry I didn't do anything to stop her."

"You always apologize, yet you do nothing when something else happens to me," Herbert said, rather emotionally and angrily. "As much as I believe you're being honest this time, I might not be inclined to next time, and I know there will be a next time!" Dan looked at him sadly, but knew this would happen eventually.

Maggie stalked over and raised her hand to slap Herbert again. He readied his shovel in return. "Don't talk to him that way, you..." She felt Dan's hand around her wrist.

"Maggie, no," he said. "I'm sick and tired of you treating him that way." She looked at him in shock.

"He's a psycho and he doesn't care about you as much as I do," Maggie said, trying to win Dan back. "Don't you remember what he called me when we were in the basement?"

"He's also my friend. Yes I do, but he's a little...territorial. He was that way with Meg."

"Thank you, Dan." Herbert smiled way too pleasantly at Maggie. "Did you hear that? I'm his friend and he certainly won't leave me for a second rate floozy like you." He stepped back as Maggie's hand wrenched out of Dan's grip and went for his face. "I don't think you should try that again, I'm more dangerous than I look. Your dear Danny can vouch for that."

They left the room. They made their way to the 3rd floor storeroom to claim Dan's prizes. They found a mysterious blue box with three rows of three buttons. Herbert joined Dan at the box.

"I'll help you," he told his friend. Dan smiled. "You might not be able to do this without me." Dan's smile began to falter.


	41. Forgiveness

"So, our first question is about the name of Silent Hill's amusement park," Dan said. "Our options are Fantasy Land, Silent Hill Amusement Park and Lakeside Amusement Park." He turned to Herbert. "How do you think we'll figure that out?"

"I suggest you get out the map."

Dan did just that, wondering how he didn't think of that himself. "Ah, here we are." He pointed out the area where the amusement park was. "Lakeside Amusement Park." He pressed the third button in the first row. "Alright, now we need to know the name of the guy that murdered those two children. It's either Walter Sullivan, Scott Fairbanks or Ed Gein."

"Walter Sullivan, option one. Remember that newspaper article from the Wood Side apartments trash?"

"Oh yeah." Dan pressed the first button in the second row. "What would I do without you?" Herbert stayed silent, not wanting to give him an honest answer though the thought had crossed his mind.

"Finally, the road that goes to Paleville through South Vale. It's Bachman, Rendell or Nathan."

Herbert pressed the third button in the third row with only a quick glance at the map. The box opened. "You're welcome."

Dan pulled out five boxes of shotgun shells and Herbert two ampoules.

They left the room, and Dan seemed infinitely happier. One, he had gotten some great prizes. Two, Herbert was talking to him again. They went back to the beautifully painted door and Herbert put the rings on the hands, which he seemed to do expertly. The door unlocked and led to a stairway. They began to go down when Herbert saw, and then picked up, a memo.


	42. Fatal Chase

"'I took the direckter's key - the one to the mooseum. I hid it behind the preying woman when I went out for the day trip. I picked it up but I did not steal it. I'm not a krimminal.' It seems this was written by one of the mental patients, one that could not spell. We are going to have to return to the park."

They went down the stairs. They went through the door at the bottom and saw they were in a very narrow hallway. They deduced they were in the basement again.

They heard a noise and turned around. They were face to face with the reanimated corpse that killed Meg. Herbert and Bob ran on ahead, feeling a bit guilty for leaving Dan and Maggie that close to the corpse. The corpse began to chase them all down the long, winding hall, almost dead set on catching up with them, or maybe just Maggie. This all reminded Dan of what preceded Meg's death nigh on eight months ago, even the location.

They reached an elevator. The doors closed just as Maggie was going to get inside. One of her hands stuck through the doors.

Dan wrestled desperately with the doors, not wanting Maggie to die just like Meg. "Open up!" he yelled as though the doors could hear him.

"Dan! Dan!" Maggie shouted.

"No!!"

"Dan!"

They saw the corpse's arm grip and squeeze Maggie's neck. Her hand went lax.

"Maggie!" Dan shouted. He showed signs he was going to cry.

Maggie's hand slipped from the elevator doors and they closed. Dan sunk to the floor, in tears. The elevator began to ascend and Herbert sat next to him. His emotions were conflicted, for he felt a little too happy that Maggie was dead, a tiny bit disappointed that it wasn't by his hand, but at the same time he was feeling sorry for Dan.

"I'm sure there's a logical explanation for all of this. Maybe Maggie died the same way as you said Megan had the first time because you still have residual guilt left over for your role in Ms. Halsey's death," Herbert said, thinking that was the best way to calm him down and cheer him up.

Dan blinked, trying to process Herbert's words. "I guess that's possible."

"You were right, this town's finally getting to me too. I fought a nurse before I reanimated Bob, and she had a very familiar burn mark on her forehead. It's one I haven't seen for about eight months. Do you think that sounds familiar to you?"

Dan looked up slowly. "Not him, there's no way it can be..."

"But if Rufus is here, and that monster based on Dean Halsey and someone that looks quite a bit like Megan...it could be him. And I do not like that."

"Who?" Bob asked.

"Dr. Carl Hill, the man who tried to steal my work on reanimation and plagiarized the work of a professor I did independent study with in Switzerland. I eventually had to kill him through decapitation and reanimate him after he told me he was going to claim my discovery as his own. His body knocked me out and he stole my work. He used it to reanimate the dead bodies in the morgue. I found a way to defeat him, but his body split open and I was nearly strangled to death by one of his..." Herbert gulped, a little upset and not really wanting to talk about that moment in his life again. "...intestines. It was after that that one of the corpses killed Meg by strangling her."

"I'm glad you didn't die."

"Thank you."

"But I'm sorry about Meg."

Dan sunk back into his depression when her name was mentioned as they reached the 1st floor.


	43. Letter and a Wrench

Herbert and Bob stood. They waited patiently for a still grieving Dan to do the same. Dan finally stood and they left the elevator. They went into the Director's Room where they saw a map on the desk. It showed a letter and a wrench on Lindsey. Dan marked the area on their map as Herbert picked up the key to the lobby.

Bob picked up a piece of paper. "You guys might want to see this," he said. Dan and Herbert went to his side. "'He who is not bold enough to be stared at from across the abyss is not bold enough to stare into it himself. The truth can only be learned by marching forward. Follow the map. There's a letter and a wrench.' Wow, that was philosophical."

They looked out the window and saw Rufus running down the street. They returned to the lobby and Herbert unlocked the doors. They went through them and outside.

"Maggie's dead," Dan said, speaking his first words in quite a while. "I couldn't protect her. Once again, I couldn't do anything to help. Rufus has run off somewhere. Meg...what should I do? Are you really here? Or is this your way of..." He paused. "We're going to find Meg. It's the only thing I have hope left for."

"I really hope you don't feel that way," Herbert said. "You have a lot to live for."

"Thank you so much, Herbert. I needed to hear something like that."

"Think nothing of it. And you owe me for fending off Maggie."

"Now is not the time to think about that, she just died," Dan said in disbelief.

"I'm sorry...I knew how much she meant to you. I just want to know if it was more than I do."

"Thanks. No, no one could."


	44. Abandoned Streets

They walked south down Carroll, noticing that it was still pitch dark outside. Bob picked up some ammo on the southern side of the western end of Rendell. Dan got himself some ammo from the other side of the street behind a station wagon, where Herbert also got a healing item.

They went east on Rendell, trying to figure out why the street name sounded familiar. Dan got himself some ammo from a dirt-filled area on the northern side of the road. He was wondering where they were going to find the rifle, since it seemed to be close. He got another box of rifle shells and box of handgun bullets from further east down the road. He gave the bullets to Bob, who he promised the shotgun to once he found the rifle. They kept going east and Dan got a box of shotgun shells and Herbert a health drink from the far end of a construction area.

They went southwest toward Saul by going on Munson. Part of Munson was blocked off, but the area near the blocked off part was a place for Bob to get ammo. They turned the corner onto Saul and Herbert retrieved a couple of items from an area near a door. They continued east on Saul and went through a gate.

They saw monsters under the grating and ran in case they could attack from below. They went through the gate at the other end of the path. Herbert and Dan recognized the motor home they saw near them. Herbert approached the front door and returned with a first aid kit. Dan got ammo from a nearby car. They continued east on Saul, where the town had left ammo for Bob by some newspaper stands. Herbert got another health item as the group walked past a shop at the intersection of Saul and Neely. They went to a nearby Happy Burger.


	45. Back to the Park

Dan got some rifle shells from the area near the sign at the western side of the building. They turned the corner to the east and Dan got more rifle shells from the parking lot. They went north on Neely.

They saw the bar and entered it, once again through the side doors after Bob got some ammo from the entrance doors area. They went to the far wall and saw a message there that wasn't around the first time Herbert and Dan were in the bar.

"Dan, this message concerns you," Herbert said. "Do you want to look at it?"

Dan dashed to Herbert's side in less than ten seconds. "What does it say?" he asked.

"'If you really want to see Meg, you should just die. But you might be heading to a different place than Meg, Dan.'" Herbert saw that Dan had started to breathe heavily and sweat. He also saw the look of fright on his friend's face. "I'm sure it's nothing. You'll be fine."

Dan looked at Herbert. "Are you sure? Thanks for saying that, though."

They left the bar and went east down Sanders until they hit Lindsey. They found the house with the letter and the wrench to the north, the second house past Gonzalez' Mexican Restaurant. Herbert picked the wrench up and gently hefted it to test its value as a weapon should he need it. Dan picked up the letter.

"'Or perhaps you are a fool. The truth usually betrays people. A part of the abyss is in the old society. The key to the society is in the park. At the foot of the praying woman, inside of a box, inside of a box. To open it, I need a wrench. My patient buried it there. I knew, but did nothing. It made me uneasy to have such a thing near. I wasn't looking for the truth, I was looking for tranquility. I also saw that thing. I fled, but the museum was sealed as well. No one dares to approach that place. If you still do not wish to stop, Dan, I pray to the Lord to have mercy on your soul.'" He began to breathe nervously. Herbert took the letter from him, putting his hand on his friend's shoulder, and they went in the direction of the park.


	46. The Silent Hill Historical Society

As they walked down Katz, Bob picked up ammo by the door to Cafe Texan. They began going west, where they had plenty of opportunities to get more helpful items.

They continue west right past some enemies. They went through a gate just past the entrance to the Wood Side apartments. They then went north on Munson. Bob got ammo from the right side of the street at the Nathan-Munson intersection. They went west until they saw the entrance to the park.

They took the path to the left and went north to enter the park. There was a concrete-filled area to the left and Bob and Dan both got a box of shotgun shells there. They continued north and descended some stairs. They did the same with the next set of stairs. They went forward down the path ahead of them and turned a corner to the left.

They found the statue of the praying woman and approached it. Herbert dug up the ground in the area. Dan pulled a tin box out of the ground, and they saw it was bolted shut. Herbert opened the box with the wrench and pulled out a bronze key. Dan snatched the wrench from Herbert immediately, not wanting him to have anything else to use as a weapon.

They left the park and returned to Nathan. They continued west until they reached the Silent Hill Historical Society. They walked a little past it and Dan got a box of rifle shells from the area near a wrecked bridge.

They turned around and Herbert unlocked the door to the Historical Society with the bronze key. After Herbert got something from the parking lot they went through the door.


	47. Down the Rabbit Hole

They walked forward as soon as they got indoors. They entered a room with paintings on the wall. One of them depicted a fearsome looking human with a red pyramid helmet holding a spear. It stood near a group of corpses in boxes that looked similar to the monsters they fought in the hospital. The other notable painting was a landscape of the waterfront.

"Why does the town look exactly the same in the painting and real life?" Dan asked. "You would think the town would have changed radically since 1820."

"This town is full of surprises," Bob and Herbert said, now getting used to the fact that they might speak in unison once in a while.

They walked into the next room and saw more paintings. One was a strange, deep hole. They heard a moaning with no visible source. They walked to another part of the room and saw a massive hole in the wall.

"What is that doing there?" Dan asked. Bob shrugged, equally confused.

"It seems to be the source of the moaning." Herbert looked into the hole. "There's a passage in there, which might explain why it's here. Maybe we should go through it." He climbed into the hole and began to crawl down, noticing the moaning grew louder the deeper he went. "Are you two coming or not?" Bob and Dan followed him, in that order.

They found themselves in a new hall after the long descent. They went through the door at the end of the hall. There was a desk to the right, which contained a piece of paper.

"'September 11, 1820. Prisoner number: C-221,'" Bob read.

"It's quite well preserved," Herbert commented.

They went around a pillar and got to the other side of the desk. Herbert picked up a first aid kit and they went through the other door in the room. They ran past a Dean Halsey monster in the hall and went through a door.


	48. Danny Fell Down a Well

They were in another hall, and this one forked. They took the path to the right and went to a door on the right side of the hallway. Bob got some ammo from a table. Herbert and Bob were the only ones who could look at the ominous paintings on the wall due to not being in the same delicate mental state as their friend.

They left the room and continued down the hall. They narrowly avoided a confrontation with another Dean Halsey monster. They went through the door at the end of the hall.

They saw a hole in the floor that looked quite like the hole in the painting from the room with the hole in the wall that led them to this new area. Herbert looked down, assessing the risk of serious injury. He jumped down the hole and Bob and Dan had no choice but to follow.

"I'm quite glad we aren't seriously injured, though I gathered we might not be after looking down the hole when we first came across it," Herbert said after they had landed.

"Haven't you noticed we're trapped in a well?" Dan asked, trying not to panic.

Bob leaned against the portion of the wall he was near. He tapped it and turned to look at the others, seeming to have figured something out. "Could either of you tap the portion of wall near you?"

"I will," Herbert said. He tapped the portion of wall behind him. "Why?"

"You might want to come over here." Dan and Herbert joined him. He tapped on his portion of wall again.

"It sounds different," Herbert said. He shoved his way in front of the wall and began hitting it with his shovel. A door was revealed and Dan sighed in relief.

They went through the door. They saw they were in a sewer, which was an unexpected surprise for them all.


	49. In the Dark

They walked down the path until they found two doors set in concrete. They went through the door to the right and saw a locked gate ahead of them. They went through the door to the right. There was a key on the floor and Herbert knelt to pick it up. After he had stood up again both his flashlight and Dan's began to grow dim. Both flashlights suddenly died and everything turned pitch dark.

Dan grabbed hold of the thing closest to him, which happened to be Herbert's arm. "Wh-what's going on?"

"I'm sure we just need to change our flashlight batteries." He looked at Dan. "Will you let go of my hand!?" He pulled the two dry cell batteries he got in the nightmarish version of the hospital from his pocket after Dan removed his hand. He gave one of the batteries to Dan. "Take this." They both put a battery into their flashlights.

The strong light from their combined beams shone on a room filled with gigantic cockroaches.

"C-could we get out of here?" Bob stammered, clearly scared. "I just remembered that I'm scared of bugs. It doesn't help that these ones are huge."

"There's another door," Dan said. He pointed at the other side of the room.

They walked across the room, Bob clasping tightly to his friends' hands. They heard crunching sounds under their feet and tried not to think about them.

Dan grabbed the doorknob with his free hand. He turned it. "The door's locked."

Bob gulped and held on tighter to the hands that he grasped.

Herbert noticed a keypad. "That keypad might help." They approached it.

The most illuminated keys on the keypad were 3, 9 and 5. They figured that one of the combinations of the numbers would be the one that would unlock the door. Dan turned to Herbert for help because he figured he could do this sort of thing. He pressed 9, then 5 and finally 3 after thinking through all other possible and numerous combinations. They heard the door unlock and made their way over to it. They went through the door.

Herbert unlocked the gate with his recently acquired spiral-writing key. They went through the gate and saw another hole ahead of them.

"I don't suppose I'm going to have to jump down first again?" Herbert asked his companions.

"I'll go first this time," Dan volunteered. He looked down the hole. "Doesn't look too dangerous." He jumped and the others followed.

They saw that they were in a cafeteria. They decided it would be best to explore their surroundings.


	50. Edwin in the Cafeteria

The three of them saw a human-shaped figure in the distance. They got closer and Herbert and Dan noticed it was Edwin after they shone their flashlights on him. They wondered how he had arrived and went to talk to him, noticing the gun in his hand.

"Killin' a person ain't no big deal," Edwin said, gun pointed to his head. "Just put the gun to their head...pow!"

Herbert, Dan and Bob looked at the table right next to where Edwin sat. There was the body of a man there. He was slumped over and they wondered how he had died.

"You...you killed him?" Dan asked.

"B-but...it wasn't my fault. He-he made me do it!"

"Calm down, Edwin. Tell us what happened."

"That guy...he...he had it coming! I didn't do anything. He just came after me! Besides he was making fun of me with his eyes! Like that other one..."

"Which other one?" Herbert asked. He knew that he in all likelihood meant the one in the fridge in the apartment.

"Just for that you killed him?" Dan asked.

"Whadda ya mean 'just for that'!?"

"Edwin, you can't just kill someone because of they way they looked at you..."

"Oh yeah! Why not? Till now I always let people walk all over me. Just like that stupid dog. He had it coming too!!"

"Edwin!!"

"He he. I was just jokin'. He was dead when I got here. Honest. Anyway, I gotta run." Edwin stood and the others looked at each, very convinced he wasn't being honest.

"You're going out there alone?"

"Yeah."

"Edwin..."

Edwin walked out of the cafeteria.

"I was right about him ever since we first met," Herbert said. "He just isn't worth the effort, Dan."


	51. Incarcerated

They went to the table to the right and behind them. Herbert picked up a healing item. He got another one towards the back of the room.

"Does anyone else think that there is something off about Edwin's mental state?" Herbert asked. Bob nodded in response.

"I don't think he was joking about that dog and corpse, even if he said so," Dan responded, as Herbert got a tablet from a pushcart at the back of the room. "So I do, and you were right earlier. He doesn't seem that innocent at all."

They left the room through some double doors. They turned left and went forward down the hall. Bob picked up ammo from the first desk on the left side of the hall by a gate. They continued forward and Dan picked up the prison map from another desk.

They went south down the hall and went through the first door to the left. They found out that it was a shower room and went to the last shower. Herbert picked up a tablet from the floor and they left the room.

They continued south and noticed, from looking at the map, that they were close to two cellblocks that were further south. They saw a door in the hallway, and noticed that it led to the upper northern cellblock after once again consulting the map.

They went into the 5th cell and Bob got ammo from the bed. They left the cell and went back into the cellblock hall. They went into the 9th cell and saw books scattered everywhere. Herbert picked up a wax doll.

"Ritual..." a disembodied voice whispered. The group started as they left the cellblock through a nearby eastern door.

They were in one of the prison halls. They went north and Bob got ammo off of the first desk in view. They found a set of double doors to their left and went through them. A Dean Halsey monster ambushed them, but it was soon dead thanks to Herbert's shovel skills. Dan got ammo from a shelf and they left.

They kept going north and found a set of doors, which led to the lower section of the northern cellblock. They walked down the hall until they reached the 7th cell. They went through the doors and Herbert got a tablet from the bed. They went to the doors and found they wouldn't open.

Dan wrestled in a panic with the doors before finally giving up. He collapsed in defeat onto the bed, his head hung down. Herbert sat next to him.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, already knowing what the response might be.

"I don't want to be locked in here," Dan replied, resisting the urge to return to the doors. He looked up at Herbert and his friend noticed that he was on the verge of tears. "I want to get out of here and find Meg. I don't even belong in jail!" He began to cry.

Herbert gave Dan a half-hearted pat on the back for consolation and lightly gripped his hand, assuming that was the best way to make him feel better. He thought of the nicest things he could say, making sure that he mentioned Meg at least once, thinking that might also help. "I'm sure we'll get out of here soon. And then you can keep...looking for Meg. Don't cry because it doesn't suit you."

Dan dried his eyes. "Thanks so much, Herbert." He wrapped his arms around his friend and gave him a hug to show him he was happy to be comforted, ignoring Herbert's struggles to get loose. This proved that Herbert's assumptions were correct. They heard a clicking noise and stood up.

Bob smiled at them. "You can thank me later."

They went through the doors and exited to the courtyard. The three of them each put a tablet into one of the three blank depressions on the scaffold. As soon as they finished, they heard a scream. It was one that belonged to a person who had been hung, according to Herbert, which led Dan and Bob to wonder how he knew about that sort of thing. They returned to the doors to go back inside. Herbert got the horseshoe that had suddenly appeared on the left door. They went inside and entered the lower northern cellblock.


	52. The Prison

They went through the door at the west end of the cellblock. They walked down the hall. They saw a door ahead of them and slightly to the right. They went through it, and saw they were in a visiting room, only on the prisoner side. Herbert got a first aid kit from the counter. They looked through the glass at the other side of the room and saw a brass lighter on the counter.

They went into the next visiting room to the north and saw that it was destroyed by something and crossed over to the civilian side. They went through the door and went into the visiting room right next to them to the left. Herbert got the lighter from the counter and they left the room.

They walked past the door right next to the room they just left. They went into the next room and saw they were in the women's bathroom. Bob strolled confidently right over to the only closed stall and knocked on it a few times. He just as confidently strolled back over to his friends and they went to leave the room. As Dan touched the doorknob they heard a loud crash come from the closed stall.

"What the hell was that!?" Dan asked, scared. They left the room. "Don't answer that, I'm sure you don't know either."

They went through the door in front of them and slightly to the left. It was the warden's office and a Dean Halsey monster was in the room with them. Herbert got a few items from around the room. The monster attempted to attack him and he killed it without breaking a sweat. He glanced at a fascinating magazine article on the desk, but decided not to share it with the others so he wouldn't frighten the very easily upset Dan, as it was also a little frightening in a Lovecraftian sort of way.


	53. Holes

Dan pulled a diary off of the shelf he was standing near. Herbert and Bob stood next to him as he opened it. They looked over it and left the room through the other door. Dan and Bob collected some ammo from various locations around the room. Dan got a hunting rifle with dark gray barrel and dark brown handle and stock from a gun rack and handed the shotgun over to Bob. They went through the door back into the warden's office then back into the hall from there, Dan inspecting his new weapon all the while. He was disappointed to find that it only held four rounds at one time and knew that the ammo might be scarce, knowing the town. They saw a door to their right and went through it.

They saw a rusted white escape hatch on the floor ahead of them. They went over to inspect it closely. Dan knelt and saw that the handle was missing. He had no clue what to do and was worried there was nothing they could do. Herbert knelt next to the hatch and pulled out the wax doll and the lighter. He lit the wax doll on fire over the area where the handle was. He then pulled out the horseshoe and stuck it in the wax.

"Problem solved," he said, pulling on his makeshift handle to open the hatch. Dan was convinced he had read his mind and found out about his worries, and wouldn't be surprised if he could. He looked down the hatch and saw another hole. "It seems we'll have to jump. I'll go first." He jumped down, and Bob and Dan followed.

"Are we in a morgue, Herbert?" Dan asked, looking around the room they landed in after they jumped. He immediately began to cough because of the foul stench that pervaded the entirety of the room.

"Yes, we are."

"You won't be using your reagent on any one of these bodies."

"I wasn't going to. They aren't fresh enough, so there's no point in using it."

"It's good you know your limits." They left through the double doors at the far end of the room. They jumped down a hole they came upon.


	54. Herbert's Turn

They walked forward and saw a door. They went through and saw another hole. They jumped down it and went into the big elevator ahead of them and each went into one of the far corners.

The elevator began to descend. They noticed items in each corner of the elevator and picked them up. Herbert and Dan told Bob about everything that happened before they got to this town. The elevator stopped and they exited it. They went through a light brown door that was next to the elevator.

Wires blocked off the door across from where they stood. They could barely see a ladder through the wires.

"I guess we're going to have to find something to cut those wires," Dan said.

"Yep," Bob said.

With that, they went east. They found a couple of monsters and defeated them with barely a scratch each. They went northeast until they found a ladder. They went down it and turned right, curious to know where they were. That was when Meg's killer appeared.

They began to run left, a slow-moving Dan's hand being held by Herbert in order to keep him near the group. They kept this pace until they reached a door. They went through it and where they were was familiar to Dan and Herbert, because it was an exact replica of the morgue of the hospital in Arkham at the time of the incident nearly eight months ago.

"Dan, we have to leave...now," Herbert ordered in an unusually panicked tone, looking around the room.

As Bob collected ammo, Herbert backed toward the door. He tried to hide the fact that he was frightened, but it wasn't working too well. Dan saw his friend trembling and followed him as he moved then sank to the floor, his breathing abnormal. It sounded like he was having the air squeezed out of his lungs, and Dan was sure he was going to reach for his neck at any second. Bob wasn't far behind.

Dan sat next to Herbert. He looked at him, but Herbert looked down so he wouldn't seem weak in his friend's eyes as he began to cry, which was something he wouldn't normally do especially around Dan. "Herbert...are you okay?" Dan asked.

Herbert sniffed and wiped his eyes, shaking his still lowered head. "I don't think so, Dan." He laughed weakly as he looked up. "I think the town is really getting to me now. And it had to be this place!"

Bob looked down. "Why is this particular place getting to you?" he asked.

"Remember that story he told you in the hospital elevator?" Dan asked, giving Herbert time to calm down.

"Yep."

"This is the place where he nearly died from being strangled...or at least looks exactly like it." Dan helped Herbert stand up and they left the room. "Will you be alright, Herbert?"

"The further away we get from that room, the better I'll be."

"Good. I was worried about you."

"Thank you." He looked up at Dan. "Do you think it was wrong of me to cry?"

"No."

They went up a ladder. They turned left and went down a ladder to the west. The new hall was submerged in water. They walked down the hall and went up another ladder. They saw a strange box made of faces in the room. They went over to get a better look at it.


	55. Still Alive

Herbert turned the box so the face with red eyes was facing up. A door appeared in the wall at the other end of the room.

"Interesting," he said, fully recovered from his near-breakdown. Dan and Bob went through the door and found that it led to a dead end. "Come back, I don't want to lock you in there with no way out." They left and returned to Herbert's side. He flipped the box until the door had reappeared and there was a staircase in the new room.

They went down the stairs and saw Maggie behind some bars, uninjured and quite alive. They were all indescribably surprised, with good reason. She sat on a chair with her hands in her lap. Herbert snarled and stayed away from the bars, disappointed that she was still alive and not eager to forget how she was so willing to attack him for yelling at Dan. Bob stayed with him for moral support while Dan approached the bars and knelt.

"You're alive! Maggie...! I thought that reanimated corpse killed you...! Are you hurt bad?"

"Not at all, silly," she answered.

"...Maggie? That reanimated corpse...it strangled you. You had no way of recovering."

"Strangled me? What do you mean?"

"It chased us to the elevator. And then..."

"Dan, what are you talking about?"

"Just before! Don't you remember?"

"Danny...did something happen to you? After we were separated in that long hallway? Are you confusing me with someone else?" She laughed. "You were always so forgetful...remember the first time we met..."

"Maggie...?"

"You were just starting school...it was completely by accident."

"How do you know about that?! Aren't you Maggie?"

"I'm not your Meg."

"So you're Maggie?"

"I am...if you want me to be."

Dan stood. "All I want from you is an answer!"

Maggie stood and got closer to the bars. "It doesn't matter who I am...I'm here for you, Dan." She reached through the bars and put a hand on Dan's face. "See? I'm real. Don't you want to touch me?"

Herbert started toward Dan to get him away from the bars. Bob restrained him and didn't let go, even when Herbert started to threaten him. Herbert eventually gave up struggling and sank to the floor, once again feeling backstabbed. He was glad he had plenty of time to think of a sneaky way to kill her if he was given the chance, whether she was created by the town or not and with no regard to Dan's feelings. He didn't even care if she came back to life, knowing that the burnt reanimated corpse could be there at any moment to take care of her again.

"I don't know..." Dan began.

"Come and get me. I can't do anything through these bars."

"Okay...stay there. We'll be there soon."

Dan rejoined Bob and Herbert. Herbert, a plan fully formed in his mind, stood up and they went back to the stairs. They went up them and saw sparks coming from the open breaker box in the room with the face box on the wall by the ladder. Herbert pulled a pair of wire cutters, which he thought of as another potential weapon, off of a wire and they went down the ladder at the other end of the path.


	56. Angelica in Distress

They followed the new path and turned left. They moved forward to the wall and turned the corner to find the door blocked by wires. Herbert produced the wire cutter and cut all the wires, and Dan snatched his other potential weapon away from him. They went down the ladder and walked down the hall. They went down the ladder that was at the other end of the hall.

They went forward, then counter-clockwise. They went up a ladder and killed a Dean Halsey monster. The walked down the hall and turned right, walking around a fence. They went down the ladder at the end of the path. They followed the next path and turned left. They reached another ladder and went up it.

Bob picked up ammo as Herbert and Dan each fought a monster. They walked down the hall and turned right, going down the ladder at the end of that section of the hall.

They turned right and ran down the hall. They took the first left they could and ascended the ladder they found.

The hall at the top of the most recent ladder was covered in newspapers, both on the walls and the floor. There was one particular article that caught their attention, but some of the words were covered in blood, rendering it unfortunately only half-legible. Herbert decided to attempt to read it anyway, knowing Dan might not want to due to most things they had read mentioning his name.

"'The bo...f a man later identified as Tomas Oro...lumberjack, ag...39) was discovered in the...om lying fa... The probable cause of dea...as multiple stab wounds to the front of the neck and the left side of the torso by a sharp edged weapon. The estimated...e of death was somewhere between 11:00 p...nd 12:30 midnight. Due to signs of struggle in the room and the lack of a murder weapon, police are cons...ering this a homicide and have opened a murder investigation. Furthermore, given the fact that the cash in the room was untouched and Mr. Oro...ad a history of drunkenness and violence, the polic...ect that t...tive was not robbery...of crime o...ion.'" He began to think for a moment then looked at Dan and Bob. "Doesn't it seem odd that Angelica had a knife with some blood on the blade? It seems this man died from knife wounds, and she had one. Maybe she..."

"Herbert, how...?"

"You know, he could..."

They all stopped talking simultaneously when they heard a scream in the distance.

"No daddy! Please! Don't!" Angelica yelled from nearby.

They ran down the hall until they found the source of her voice. They went through the door.


	57. Monstrous Daddy

They saw a monster in the room with Angelica, who was sitting in the corner. The monster looked quite like a bed frame with a bed that contained two people, one atop the other. The top figure looked male and the bottom female. Dan took out his handgun and they all prepared to fight.

As they fought, they noticed pistons pumping in and out of holes in the wall. This and the monster gave the group a very strong image of eroticism. The way Angelica had called the monster daddy made it even worse, and they thought it was something that had to do with her subconscious. This led Dan to believe Herbert's theory could be right, Bob needing no proof because he was already on the verge of agreeing with him before they rushed into this room.

After Bob knocked the monster to the ground with his shotgun after two shots, Herbert hit it with his shovel. The monster lumbered in his direction and lifted a part of its body towards the middle of the female figure over his head like a hood, cutting off his air and choking him.

"Dan, get this thing off of me!" he yelled/ordered, depending on how Dan would take it, in a muffled and weak voice. Either way, he hoped Dan would help him soon. He suddenly remembered that Dan owed him and knew he had no choice, what with that and the whole friend thing as well.

"Herbert!" Dan shot at the monster until it stood up. He grabbed Herbert, who was now coughing to make up for all the air that was choked out of his body. "Just take a breather."

"Dan..." Herbert frowned at Dan's pun, however intentional or unintentional it may have been. "...Thank you. But the pun wasn't called for, as you should know."

Dan turned around and assisted Bob in the fight. Herbert joined them after fully recovering, having learned his lesson about attacking the monster while it was on the ground. The monster finally died and the group turned to talk to Angelica.

"Are you okay?" Dan asked nicely.

Angelica moaned. She stood up and walked over to the monster. She kicked it repeatedly and it growled, not as dead as they thought it was. She picked up a TV set that was in the room with them and she broke it over the monster, seeming to have superhuman strength. This finally killed the monster.

"Angelica! Relax!"

"Don't order me around!" she yelled. Dan blinked, taken aback.

"How dare you talk to Dan in that manner!" Herbert shouted at her. "Now, that was an order." Dan looked at him and smiled.

"I'm not trying to order you."

"So what do you want then? Oh I see, you're trying to be nice to me, right? I know what you're up to. It's always the same. You're only after one thing."

"That's not true."

"You don't have to lie. Go ahead and say it. Or you could just force me. Beat me up like he always did." She began to kneel. "You only care about yourself anyway." She began to cry and her tears were accompanied by the sounds of dry heaving. "You disgusting pig."

Only reassuring glances from his friends kept Dan from crying. "Angelica..." He put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't touch me!! You make me sick!" She stood and regained her composure. "You said your girlfriend Meg was dead, right?"

"Yes..."

"Liar! I know about you...you didn't want her around anymore. You probably found someone else." She walked into the hall, closing the door behind her as she went.

"That's ridiculous...I never..." Dan said, forcibly blinking back tears.

They left the room and Dan almost broke down. He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder. He looked down and saw it was Herbert, who quickly removed his hand as they went through another door. Dan realized Angelica could be right, but not about his not wanting Meg around anymore.


	58. Dead Men, Dead Men Hangin' From a Tree

They found two smaller rooms in the new room. Dan and Herbert went into one room together. They saw the bodies of six men hanging from the ceiling, who it seemed were hanged. Herbert approached one, taking his reagent and a syringe out of his pocket. He went up on his tiptoes and began to inject his reagent. He felt Dan's rather smooth hand on his wrist and looked to his left.

"It won't work," Dan said.

"Why?"

"I tried it on Meg. It only worked for a while, and then she died again," Dan explained. "Do you know why that is?"

"I might."

"It was because she, like these men, died after being strangled in some way." That was the answer Herbert expected.

Herbert sighed, put his supplies away again and returned to a normal standing position. "I'll take your word for it. And before you say anything...I believe you."

"Guys, come in here!" Bob shouted from the other room. They joined him and saw six nooses on the wall, below which were the crimes the men were hanged for committing.

There were two signs on the fence in the room and they looked at them. One told them that only the innocent person of the group of bodies could help them. The other one was the riddle, which could help them find the innocent man.

"I found the room so I'll read the riddle," Bob said. "'He committed an evil crime. He turned a happy home into a pile of ash. For that, he should die.'" He looked at Dan and Herbert. "This was the arsonist. He wasn't innocent, obviously."

"Wow, this town was harsh," Dan said. "He just burnt a house down."

"'They also committed crimes. They tried to fraud and trick others. So their reward too is natural.' It's the counterfeiter, swindler and thief. 'Even he cannot be forgiven, my friend without his left hand. And so his death bothers me not.' The bodily injurer, and there's one left. 'The missing child was nowhere to be found, and so there was no proof of his guilt. His death was a tragedy. That is all I wish to say. It was neither justice nor retribution.'"

"So this means the kidnapper was innocent," Herbert said.

They found the correct body in the other room and noted its position. They went back to the other room and found the right noose. Herbert pulled the noose and they went back in the other room. In place of the innocent man's body was a key, which Herbert took.

They left the room and walked to the end of the hall.


	59. Redead

They went through the door in front of them and walked down the new hall. They saw a lifting gate ahead of them with a pair of handcuffs attached to it. Herbert unlocked them with the key he just got. Dan lifted the gate and they went down a ladder. They walked until they reached a white door. Dan's eyes sparkled with the hope that they had found where Maggie was waiting for him. He just couldn't wait to see her again.

They went through the door. There they saw Maggie lying on the bed. Dan was happy they had found her. Herbert was considerably less ecstatic.

"Maggie?" Dan said, the hint of hope beginning to drain from his features. He walked closer to the bed. He saw something that made all hope he had remaining disappear. "Maggie...? Maggie, no...what happened to you? Why...why...?" He and his companions saw that she was clearly dead again, and Herbert was sure it was because the reanimated corpse got to her. He tried not to smile too much, but was certain she would be alive again. Her neck was blue from loss of air. It seemed she had been strangled, just another way for the town to get under Dan's skin. Dan sat next to her body, tears starting to flow down his cheeks. He rested his elbows on the bed and put his hands on his face, which did nothing for his seemingly endless stream of tears. "Meg..." He turned as he heard the sounds of Herbert's shoes on the floor as he moved closer to him.


	60. Hurt

"Dan," Herbert said, sticking an unused syringe full of reagent in Dan's line of sight, trying to tempt him to use it. "You know you want to."

Dan turned and stood. He finally had dried all his tears. His whole face twisted into a countenance of rage, replacing the more recent one of depression. "Dammit Herbert, how many times do I have to tell you!?" he shouted at the top of his lungs, his throat growing rawer with each word. He grabbed Herbert by the collar of his shirt and shook him a little. "No! I'm not going to use it, because I know what will happen! I don't want her to end up like Meg, especially the way she ended up after I used your damn reagent on her!" He only had to think of Meg and mention her, and he was in tears again. His grip loosened on his friend's shirt and he eventually let go of him.

Herbert pocketed his syringe and went to leave the room, his back turned to Dan not sure he could forgive him this time. He was shocked Dan would dare raise his voice to him like that and be so violent, especially since they were friends or were supposed to be, and that only made his hurt deepen. He felt the lump in his throat that usually comes before tears and did his best not to cry as well. "Bob, let's go." There was a mournful tone in his voice, which made Dan feel worse than he already did. He followed the other two out of the room, wondering if Herbert would ever talk to him again after this.


	61. Edwin Gone Nuts

They noticed the gate that was locked was now not that way. They went through the gate and up a ladder. Herbert picked up something, another healing item. They walked down the hall until they got into something that could be none other than a catacomb. Dan and Bob each got ammo from the southeast and southwest corners of the room. There was more ammo in the northern part of the room and the center and Dan picked it up. He passed Herbert, who was returning with something he discovered in the northwest corner of the room, trying not to look at him out of the sheer guilt and pain it would cause.

They saw some gravestones nearby and looked at them. There was one for Walter Sullivan, who Dan and Herbert remembered from the article they read at the apartment building. There was one for a woman named Miriam whose last name was not specified.

It was the last three gravestones that began to scare Dan, and possibly also Herbert. There was one for Edwin Dombrowski, one for Angelica Orozco. Finally, and this was the only one open and the scariest of them all, one for Daniel Cain. Dan stumbled back and looked a little pale and faint. Bob caught him and gave him a comforting hug. Herbert jumped down the hole without a second thought, even one about the name on the only open grave. He walked down some stairs, not thinking to wait for the others, as he was still very angry with Dan for being treated the way he was. He began to walk down the long path that stretched out ahead of him, and that's when he heard the footsteps of his friends.

They went through the door at the end of the path. They seemed to be in a large freezer like the one in a supermarket and they saw Edwin standing at the other end of the room, gun in hand. Several corpses surrounded him and the group knew their suspicions about him were correct.

"Edwin! What are you doing?" Dan asked for the group.

"What does it look like? He always busted my balls. 'You fat disgusting piece of shit! You make me sick!' 'Fat-ass, yer nothin' but a waste of skin.' 'You're so ugly, even yer mama don't love you!' Well, maybe he was right. Maybe I am nothing but a fat, disgusting piece of shit. But ya know what? It doesn't matter if you're smart, dumb, ugly, pretty...it's all the same once you're dead. And a corpse can't laugh. From now on, if anyone makes fun of me...I'll kill 'em. Just like that." He put his gun to his head to demonstrate his point. He turned around and began to leave the room.

"Edwin, have you gone nuts?" Dan asked.

Edwin slowly turned around to face Dan, clearly angry about his accusation. "I knew it. You too. You're just like 'em, Dan."

"How dare you accuse my friend of that...you lunatic!" Herbert finally said. "Everything everyone has accused you of has been true, but Dan never said anything. You should never talk that way about him again! I am the one you should be angry with, not him. If you really have to prove anything by killing someone, it shouldn't be him."

Dan took a deep breath, honored that Herbert still viewed him as a friend and had gotten over the way he had been treated earlier. "Hey, I didn't mean anything," he said to Edwin, stepping in front of Herbert because of Edwin's threat.

"Don't bother. I understand. You've been laughin' at me all along, haven't you? Ever since we first met. I'll kill you, Dan, and your buddy Herbert."

He raised his gun, pointed it at Dan and Herbert then shot. They both dodged.

"We have to fight him, don't we?" Bob asked. He pulled out his shotgun and cocked it.

"I think so," Dan responded. He pulled out the steel pipe.

"We have no choice, he tried to kill us," Herbert said.

Dan and Herbert got up close to Edwin to fight him. Bob was only slightly behind them due to his use of a firearm.

After Herbert had landed a few attacks with his shovel he paused long enough for Edwin to punch him right in the gut and he collapsed to his knees, the wind knocked out of him. Pain flared around his rib that had fractured from his injury in the hospital and he cried out. Dan sat next to him concerned he was seriously injured.

"Herbert...are you okay?" Dan asked. He ran his hand across the injured area and felt Herbert flinch in pain when he reached that one rib.

Herbert gasped for breath. "I'll be fine, you focus on fighting."

Dan stared at Herbert incredulously. "You need to use a healing item because you're not fine. Not only do you still have that fractured rib, you also just had the wind knocked out of you. You're being ridiculously stubborn and I want you to stop it!"

"Dan..." Herbert began, a little hurt. He felt Dan begin to give him an apologetic hug that wouldn't irritate his rib injury for what he had just said. "Not now." That's when they heard a few gunshots come from behind. It seemed Bob had fired at Edwin. They saw him raise his gun in retaliation. He fired and the bullet tore right through Bob's shoulder. His blood dripped onto the floor.

"Bob!" Dan shouted, his eyes widened in shock. "No!"

Herbert couldn't find the words to describe how he felt about possibly losing his new friend and most successful subject. They heard the bullet clatter to the floor and saw the gaping hole in his shoulder begin to close up as if it were healing.

"You were worried?" Bob asked, grinning like the Cheshire cat. "How sweet." Everyone stared at him, shocked. "What? What!?"

Dan stood up, supporting Herbert. They fought until Edwin fled into the next room. They followed him, determined to find out what was going on with him. Dan and Bob picked up ammo.

They found they were in a meat locker. There were large animal carcasses hung around the room, so Edwin's location was well hidden.

"Do you know what it does to you? When you're hated, picked on, spit on, just 'cause of the way you look. After you've been laughed at your whole friggin' life. That's why I ran away after I killed the dog. Ran away like a scared little girl. Yeah, I killed that dog. It was fun. It tried to chew its own guts out! Finally died all curled up in a ball. Then he came after me, I shot him too. Right in the leg. He cried more than the dog!" Edwin said from an unknown location in the room.

They heard a loud bang behind them. They turned around to see what caused the noise. They noticed nothing was behind them, and they were still in the dark about what caused that bang.

"He's gonna have a hard time playing soccer on what's left of that knee."

"You think it's okay to kill people!" Dan said, casting a quick glance at Herbert as what he said and was about to say was just as important for him to hear. "You need help, Edwin!"

"Don't get all holy on me, Dan. You're in this town, too. We're the same. We're not like other people. Don't you know that?!" Edwin walked out of his hiding place, which was just behind the group. They didn't know how they didn't manage to see him when they turned around after hearing the loud bang. "Let's party!"

They fought bravely and only took a small amount of damage each. After Edwin was injured enough, he fell to the floor, dead.

"Edwin?" Dan said. He walked over to the body and looked at it. "Edwin! I...I killed a...a human being...a human being..." He broke into a cold sweat and collapsed to the floor on his side. He began shaking with tears that wouldn't come out of his eyes. He began to cry just as Herbert knelt next to him. "How can you stand this feeling, Herbert?"

Herbert helped Dan up. "Come on, Dan," he said, deflecting the question, afraid of Dan's reaction to his answer. "We have to go." They went through one of the large doors in the first room.


	62. Lakeview Hotel at Last

They walked along the docks outside the Historical Society and turned left. They found a boat and climbed in it. They decided to row it across the lake to the Lakeview Hotel, which was where they intended to go all that time. They turned left once they were on the lake and saw a light shining through the dense fog.

"Maybe that's a lighthouse," Dan said. "We should head for it." They rowed across the lake until they reached the light, which was not a lighthouse.

They disembarked from the boat and walked down the dock of the Lakeview Hotel.

"So, this is the hotel...finally," Dan said, a tiny hint of sadness in his voice. "I wish Maggie could have come." Herbert wanted to say, "I don't" but remembered that Dan was his friend.

They walked up the stairs ahead of them. This led to the courtyard. Herbert grabbed a Little Mermaid music box out of the fountain to their left and they walked some more. They found more stairs and the back entrance to the hotel. They went through the double doors and Dan grabbed the Hotel Map for Guests from the wall to their left. He noticed something in the box for room 312. They walked down the hall and turned right. They entered the Lake Shore Restaurant.

They walked over to the only table that was set and Herbert got the Fish Key off a plate.

They found nothing else of interest and began to leave the room. They heard a loud sound coming from the piano.

"Who's letting the cat play the piano?" Bob asked as they approached the piano.

They looked around the side and saw Rufus stepping on random keys.

"Rufus!" Dan said.

"How did you know it was a cat?" Herbert asked Bob.

"It was just a joke..." Bob answered utterly amazed he was right.

"You scared us," Dan told Rufus.

Rufus walked out of his hiding place and sat near his master. He meowed in a questioning tone.

"No...I haven't."

Rufus meowed in a whiny tone.

"I wish..."

Rufus ran out of the room.

"Rufus!" Dan shouted.

They left the room, hoping they might find the cat again at some later point. They found they had encountered some smaller monsters like the one they fought in the Labyrinth. They found it hard to get past them and Bob quickly brought them down with his shotgun.

They walked west down the hall and entered a storeroom. They fought and killed some mannequins, which they were surprised to see. They went through the door at the right end of the hall. Dan and Bob grabbed some ammo. They went back into the hall, then down into the basement.


	63. Puzzles

They walked down the hall and avoided a pair of mannequins by taking a path that went east. They went into a non-functioning elevator and Herbert grabbed some paint thinner. They went back up to the 1st floor, where they went through one of the large doors near the basement stairs that were used to access the lobby.

They went to reception. They noticed a note about a videotape for Dan, which was in the office on the very floor they were on.

"I don't remember seeing an office on this floor on the map," Dan said. "But there's a big empty area which has to be for employees only."

Herbert looked through the boxes where the room keys were kept. One key caught his eye and he pulled it out.

"It seems we need to go to room 312," he told the others, showing them the key.

They returned to the lobby and went up to the 2nd floor. They entered the cloakroom and Herbert got an ever-important health item from the counter. Bob and Dan examined the shelves and found plenty of ammo. They saw a briefcase on the counter by the wall and went over to it.

Dan tried to open it. "It's locked," he told his friends.

"Out of the way, Dan," Herbert said, shoving his way over to the briefcase only a little rudely. He took out the fish key and unlocked the briefcase. He retrieved the key to room 204 and they left the room.

They walked until they reached the end of the too short hallway. Bob got two boxes of ammo off the semi-circle table by the window. They went into the Reading Room next. Bob got ammo off the shelf to his left and more ammo off the shelf in the corner just past the bookshelf. Herbert took a health item from the table in the other corner of the room and they returned to the hall.

They went into room 204 as soon as they reached it. Herbert got an employee elevator key off the desk and they went through a hole in the wall. They ended up in room 202 where they saw another locked briefcase.

"Puzzle time, it seems," Herbert said, carefully examining the briefcase.


	64. Weaponless

"It's letters instead of numbers...weird," Dan said.

Herbert turned each dial until he spelled the word lose after glancing at some photos that were scattered across the bed and using the paint thinner. The briefcase's lock clicked. "That was easy," Herbert commented, opening the briefcase. He took out a Cinderella music box and they left the room.

They went to the eastern hallway and Herbert got a health item from the semi-circle table by the elevator. Dan got ammo from a stand in about the same area.

Herbert used the employee elevator key to open the employee elevator room. Before they got into the elevator Herbert got two health items from a janitor cart. They saw the elevator on the left side of the room. They stepped into it and an alarm sounded. They noticed the weight allowance was only one person and they decided they would go down one at a time. They noticed a shelf only a bit farther from the elevator and went over to it. They placed their items on the shelf and went back to the elevator.

"So, how are we going to decide who goes down the elevator first?" Dan asked.

"Last man standing," Herbert suggested, suppressing laughter.

Dan looked at him in shock. "Herbert..."

"That was a joke, Dan. You should be used to my sense of humor by now."

"How about rock, paper, scissors?" Bob asked, trying to stop Dan and Herbert from arguing a little too much like a married couple...again.

"That sounds good," Herbert and Dan answered in unison.

They stood in a circle, a hand each pointed at each other. "Rock, paper, scissors!" they said. Their hands flashed out. Herbert won and he went down to the 1st floor in the elevator.

"It's just you and me, Danny boy," Bob said.

"Rock, paper, scissors!" they said. It was a tie. "Rock, paper, scissors!" Dan was the winner.

Finally, Bob used the elevator. He saw Herbert and Dan waiting on the 1st floor. Dan showed Bob the hotel map for employees that he got from the corkboard as they walked into the pantry.


	65. Herbert West: BadAss

Herbert saw something on the shelf to their right. He picked up a Snow White music box. They left the room and approached the office where the videotape for Dan was. Dan got the tape out of an open safe as Herbert got a can opener.

"Do either of you think this can opener could be used as a weapon?" he asked Bob and Dan.

"Why do you ask?" Dan asked back.

"I might have to defend us at some point. And we did put all our weapons on that shelf upstairs," Herbert informed his friend.

"I guess it would. And I do feel pretty safe when you're defending us, though you just killing things without a second thought is kind of scary."

They left the room and entered the employee lounge that was just to the north. Dan got two boxes of ammo from the fridge in the far corner of the room. They left the room and returned to the elevator. The doors wouldn't budge and they went down some stairs that were by the office where they got the tape.

There was a mannequin at the bottom of the stairs that approached them. Herbert brutally but calmly killed it with the can opener. It did not at all bother him that his hand was steeped in the monster's blood.

They went into the boiler room and Herbert got a healing item from in front of him. He grabbed the key to the Venus Tears bar from the side of the boiler. They went back into the hall and walked further down it.

There was another mannequin at the end of the hall that met the same fate as the first they encountered. They went into the kitchen and Herbert got two healing items from the shelf at the back of the room and another from the counter. He saw a tin can on the corner of the same counter and used the blood-soaked can opener on it. He pulled a light bulb out and they went through the door to the right.


	66. Venus Tears Bar

They went over to the exit door of the bar at the other end of the room.

"I can't find the keyhole because it's way too dark in here," Dan said. "We shouldn't have left our flashlights on that shelf upstairs."

Herbert walked over to the lamp by the door he noticed when they first entered the bar. He noticed it had no light bulb so he got out the one he got out of the tin can in the kitchen with his temporary weapon. He put it in the lamp and turned on the lamp. "This should help."

"Thanks, Herbert." He fumbled around his pockets for the key that would unlock the door. "Do you have the key for this door on you?"

"Yes." Herbert walked back over to the door with the key and unlocked the door.

They went through the door and found they were in the guest side of the basement once more, completely baffled by why a hotel basement would have a guest side in the first place. They went back up to the 1st floor and went back into the lobby, on a quest to get back the items they left on the shelf by the employee elevator. They went through the door that led to the employee's side of the hotel.


	67. The Tape

They saw two mannequins in the employee elevator room hallway. Unfortunately, they had run out of ways to defend themselves, though Herbert did consider grabbing the thing nearest to him and using it to bludgeon them to death. They had no choice but to run past them into the employee elevator room. They took all their items back from the shelf and left the room.

They returned to the 1st floor and consequently the lobby. They saw a music box turntable that had slots for three music boxes and Herbert approached it. He saw a riddle inscribed in each slot that could help solve the puzzle. "'When the Lost One is returned, the sour note shall turn sweet.'" He placed each music box in each slot in a random order. A haunting melody played on the music box once he started the music. "It's quite beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yes," Dan answered.

The music boxes turned until they were inside the turntable. Three new music boxes were revealed and there was a key on the one in the middle.

Herbert picked up the key. "It's for the hotel stairway. How and where would we use it?"

"I noticed the stairs to the 3rd floor were blocked off by a gate," Bob said. "That's where we should use it, that way we can finally get to room 312."

They went up to the 3rd floor after unlocking the gate that blocked its stairs off. They entered room 312 as soon as they found it. There seemed to be nothing of importance there, but that was when Herbert noticed a TV with a VCR.

"Come here, Dan," he said. "You too, Bob." He looked at Dan. "Maybe you can play that video cassette of yours now."

"Not a bad idea." He put the tape in the VCR and did a double take when Bob produced some chairs, popcorn and soda.

"What? What!?" Bob asked, noticing the puzzled looks on the faces of his friends.


	68. Silence

The tape showed the events that happened nearly eight months ago in the lives of Herbert and Dan. Neither of them seemed too eager to relive some of them. Bob, on the other hand, seemed more than willing to learn about what happened to his friends before they met.

That was when the video came to the events at the morgue. Herbert turned his head just before he recounted his seeming demise. The moment passed and he turned back. He saw just what had caused Dan so much pain and had made everything in this town happen. He heard a heavy sobbing and turned his head, Bob doing the same thing. They saw that Dan was in tears and his hands were on his face, trying to hide the fact that he was crying.

"Guys, it's awful what happened to the both of you," Bob said.

Dan slumped mournfully deeper into his chair. The radio started issuing static and he sat back up.

"Dan. Where are you? I'm waiting. I'm waiting for you. Please come to me." Meg's voice said from the radio. Dan gasped and seemed to be on the verge of tears again. He stood, followed by his friends. "Do you hate me? Is that why you won't come?"

"That voice..." Dan said, crushed by accusations of hate and abandonment by the voice of his dearly departed and beloved fiancée.

"Please hurry. Are you lost? I'm near. I'm waiting nearby, Dan. Please. I want to see you, Dan. Can't you hear me? Dan...please, Dan...Dan...Dan...Dan..." The radio died, and there was no way any of them could get it to work again.

"No, Meg, no!!" Dan shouted, close to breaking permanently this time. He collapsed to his knees and sobbed bitterly. The radio dropped from his hand as he fell to the floor on his side.

Herbert wrapped his suit jacket around his nearly catatonic friend and gave him a gentle but swift hug, unable to say his name. "Only for you, Dan...I really hate seeing you like this," he managed to say. He took Dan's hand to help him up. Dan stood and they left the room.


	69. Nightmare Hotel

"What happened to the hotel?" Dan asked as they walked down the hall. "It's burnt, and there's water leaking everywhere."

"I'm sure it shifted into a different version, like the hospital," Herbert said.

Just as he finished talking everything went dark around the group. He pulled his flashlight out of his pocket, and Dan did the same.

"Our flashlights aren't working again," Dan said. "I don't suppose you have any more batteries, Herbert?"

"I only had the two of them, and we used those long ago. I'm sorry, Dan." Dan grabbed Herbert's hand and tried to breathe normally again. "Please let go of my hand, it's not all that bad."

Dan dropped his hand from his friend's as they went back down to the 2nd floor. They found that going through the doors of some rooms warped them to other rooms. They went through the door to room 202 and ended up in room 219. They walked down the floor's eastern hallway, Bob grabbing ammo from a windowsill to their left. They entered the next hall to the west and Herbert picked up a pair of ampoules from the semi-circle table by the elevator. They went into the elevator and descended to the basement.

The doors opened onto a water-drenched floor. They all rolled up the bottoms of their pants and walked out of the elevator. They saw signs that something was moving in the water and bolted past whatever it was, not wishing to get into a fight.

They went back into the Venus Tears bar.


	70. A Fiery Fate

They walked to the back of the bar, where all the liquor was kept, Dan still hoping to sit down and have that drink. Herbert grinned to himself as he got a whopping five health drinks from the ledge where the liquor bottles were kept.

"What's the state of the liquor, Herbert?" Dan asked.

"Probably not very safe to drink, Dan. And it won't help with your problems either, so I still advise against it."

Bob turned to Dan. "What do you need that stuff for, Dan?" he asked. He turned away and produced a bottle of cold, refreshing beer. "Seems I have another one. Want it, Herbert?"

Herbert scoffed, a sound that Dan was used to by now. "I have no need for that." He laughed a little as he spoke.

"Alright, I'll have it." Dan and Bob opened their beers as they passed through the door that went to the kitchen.

"Nice amount of ammo here," Dan said, going over to the shelf at the back of the room. He grabbed rifle shells.

Bob looked to his left and picked up shotgun shells. "Amen to that."

Herbert drifted over to the fridge. He picked up a first aid kit. "Not only ammo to be excited about."

They went into the employee hallway. They bolted past another monster in the water. They went through the blue door at the end of the hall and up the stairs through it.

They were expecting a metal staircase but they were met with a wooden staircase with carpeting. Not only that, but the entire room was engulfed in flames. In this very alien place they saw Angelica and they approached her so they could speak with her.

Angelica turned around and faced the group. "Mom! Mom, I was looking for you," she said, walking toward Dan as he began to back away. "Now you're the only one left. Maybe then…maybe then I can rest." She kept walking forward as he kept backing away. "Mom, why are you running away?" She put her hands on Dan's face, then placed them on his shoulders and they went back up to his face. She looked at his face very closely and backed off.

"Stop that, both of you!" Dan shouted, noticing how Herbert and Bob were laughing about the whole mistaken identity situation.

"If you insist, Danielle," Bob said, stifling another onset of the giggles.

"You're not mom," Angelica realized. "It's you...I-I'm sorry..."

"Angelica, no..." Dan said.

"Thank you for saving me...but I wish you hadn't. Even mom said it...I deserved what happened..."

"What kind of mom is she to say something like that?" Bob asked with his jaw dropped in amazement.

"No Angelica, that's wrong!"

"No. Don't pity me. I'm not worth it..." Her voice became sultry. "Or maybe you think you can save me? Will you love me? Take care of me? Heal all my pain?" Dan said nothing.

"I don't believe you are his type," Herbert said.

"That's what I thought. Dan. Give me back that knife," Angelica said. She reached a hand toward Dan.

"No, I won't," Dan said.

"Saving it for yourself?" she asked as she started to walk up the fiery stairway.

"Me? No...I'd never kill myself...It's hot as hell in here."

"You see it too? For me, it's always like this." She disappeared into the flames, never to be seen again.

"Poor kid," Bob said.

"She's not coming back from that alive," Herbert said.

"I'm begging you not to reanimate her," Dan said. "She's gone through too much pain in her life for her to live it again. It'll be best for her."

"Plus she would be another reanimated burn victim. You can't hide the fact that would scare you from me."

"I'm glad you get me, Herbert."

They went back through the door they came through. They reappeared on the staircase they meant to get to before they found Angelica.


	71. Dan Grows Up: A Double Battle

They walked up the stairs and found themselves in the employee only section of the 1st floor. They went around the staircase and then the bathroom area. Herbert nearly scorched his hand getting two ampoules off the heater.

They went back and turned northeast. Dan got two boxes of rifle shells from the small alcove near the manager's office. They continued down the hall and ran over some grating to avoid being attacked by the hanging monsters. They went through the door at the end of the path.

"I think it's about time I used this," Dan said, pulling out the rifle.

They went through the double doors in the room. They heard a familiar voice, one they shouldn't be hearing again. Herbert sighed in frustration.

"Dan!" Maggie cried out.

They looked up and saw both the burnt reanimated corpse and another reanimated corpse only Herbert recognized, that of Dr. Hans Gruber. They were atop a platform, one on each side. Between them was a strange metal contraption. Maggie was hanging upside down from it.

"Stop! Leave her alone! Leave us both the hell alone!" Dan shouted.

The burn victim walked over to Maggie. He took her neck in his hand and strangled her. She seemed to be dead, for at least the third time by everyone's count. This made Herbert a tiny bit happy. Dan dropped to his knees.

"Don't let this defeat you, Dan," Herbert said. "You're stronger than this."

Dan half-smiled at Herbert, shaking with silent sadness. "I was weak. That's why I needed you...needed someone to punish me for what I thought were my sins...but that's all over now...I know the truth...now it's time to end this," Dan said, controlling his sorrow and pain.

Herbert smiled proudly as Dan stood. "Shall we fight?"

"Yeah."

They all brandished their weapons.

"I'll fight Dr Gruber," Herbert said. "You fight the other one, Dan. No matter how painful it may be for you, you must face up to all of this."

"Do you need help, Herbert?" Bob asked.

"I'll be fine," he replied. "You help Dan."

"But he isn't the one that gave me life again," Bob sighed. "But if that's what you want, that's fine with me."

They split up. Herbert walked closer to his target in order to use his shovel, not wishing to try out a gun. Dan and Bob raised their guns and aimed at their target. They fired and not only did their target take damage, Herbert's did too.

"Interesting," Herbert said. He gave Dr. Gruber a good, solid hit with his shovel. Meg's killer took the same amount of damage. "Very interesting."

"This might make the battle go a lot faster," Bob noted.

They fought until both opponents stopped dead in their tracks, probably finding no point in fighting anymore. They walked forward and killed themselves, dying in the manners they died in the past.

Before they knew it, they were in the lobby again.

"That was weird," Bob said. He moved over to the lobby doors and tried to open them. He discovered they were locked and he saw two empty egg-shaped slots, one on each door. "Guys, you might want to come over here."

They walked over to join him. "Dan, didn't you notice that the two reanimated corpses were each holding an egg?" Herbert asked.

"You're right. Maybe we can use them to open these doors." They walked over to their defeated enemies. "Now I understand why you left Switzerland. No wonder you didn't answer me when I asked if you'd ever used your reagent on a person before. It didn't work, right?"

Herbert glared at Dan as they picked up a rust colored egg and a scarlet egg. They went to the doors and put the eggs in the slots. The doors unlocked and they went through them.


	72. No Turning Back

The hallway they entered was fenced off to both the east and the west. They didn't feel like turning back so they had no choice but to continue forward. They walked down the hall until they saw the back entrance. They went through the door that got them here in the first place.

Instead of being outside, they were in a long, misty hallway. They walked down it and heard a conversation between Dan and Meg that nearly made Dan break down again. He remembered that he was stronger than this, just like Herbert had said earlier, and stopped his tears before they had the chance to fall from his eyes.

They went through the door at the other end of the hall. Now they were truly outside. It was raining, but that didn't seem to bother anyone in the group, seeing as they probably had much more to deal with. They stepped forward and walked onto the path to their right.

They went up a set of stairs all the way to the top. As soon as they got off the stairs, they collapsed behind them.

"We can't go back now, that much is apparent," Herbert said.

They walked into the room right near them. There was no ceiling and the floor was metallic. There was a bed somewhere near the middle of the room. They saw a woman who looked like Meg and was wearing Maggie's clothing gazing out of the window. Herbert spotted a door nearby and went over to it. Bob followed him.

"I'll help you out if we run into trouble," Bob told Herbert.

They both knew Dan could deal with his problems on his own. They left the room and entered one very similar to it.

Dan walked closer to the woman. "Meg!" he said, hope filling his voice.

The woman turned around and she and Dan looked at each other for a moment. It was Maggie, who seemed to bounce back from death as easily as Herbert, whom Dan noticed was gone along with Bob.

"When will you ever stop making that mistake!? Meg's dead. Your failure to protect her killed her," Maggie said.

"Maggie...? It's you...but I don't need you anymore," Dan said confidently.

"What?" she asked. "You must be joking! But I can be yours...I'll be here for you forever." She walked toward Dan. "And I'll never yell at you or make you feel bad. That's what you wanted. I'm different than Meg...how can you throw me away!?"

"I understand now. It's time to end this nightmare."

"No! I won't let you! You deserve to die too, Dan."

Maggie slowly transformed into something that looked like a woman the color of dry blood or rust and was enclosed in a box that wasn't entirely closed off and had tentacles protruding from it. Her appearance reminded Dan of the monsters they fought in the hospital or the figures in the background of the painting of the man with the pyramid helmet. The only other difference was the black moths swarming around her.

"If this is the way it has to be, it doesn't bother me," Dan told himself, raising his rifle and keeping the handgun by his side in case he needed it. Or was it that he was telling himself and the monster this? Either way, he was prepared to fight to end this nightmare and go home with his friend. "I just hope Bob and Herbert are safe, wherever they are."


	73. The Ultimate Foe

When Bob and Herbert thought the room they were in looked similar to the last one, they were wrong. It suddenly bore a resemblance to Herbert's basement lab. However, they weren't the only ones in the room. The other occupant made Herbert step toward the door, frightened. Bob closely studied the stately man with gray hair, blue eyes and a very commanding aura.

"Who is this guy?" Bob asked Herbert. He suddenly remembered the video they watched and recalled who it was. "So this is Dr. Carl Hill. Or to be more accurate, a representation of him created by the town in order to screw with your mind and make you go crazy. And this was after the town found out it didn't like what's going on in your head, as brilliant as you are."

"Bob, could you get to the point of what you are trying to say?" Herbert asked, impatience fighting to replace the tone of fear that was in his voice.

"If he turns into a monster I'll help you fight him."

"Thank you."

"No problem, pal."

Herbert stepped forward, gripping his shovel tight. He put on a smile for show, but was quivering on the inside like a scared boy. Bob slung his shotgun over his shoulder and joined Herbert.

A transformation occurred and Dr. Hill became what Herbert turned him into after using his reagent and a shovel the same as the one he had now.

"West..." the head said in its raspy voice.

"Dr. Hill," Herbert replied pleasantly, the smile still on his face. "I'm ready to end whatever I'm going through in this town with help from my friend here. And that means fighting you to finish it all. I hope you're ready for it too."


	74. One Last Loose End

Dan distanced himself from the monster that once looked like Meg by running away from it. He fired off two shots with his rifle and moved to another corner. The monster spit out a cloud of black moths. They swarmed around Dan in order to get him to be in a position where he couldn't move and was prone to attack. He got out of the way and shot at the monster again.

He repeated the process until the monster was down on the ground. She wasn't dead, but she wasn't doing very well either.

"Dan," the monster said softly and sweetly in Meg's voice. "Dan...Dan...Dan...Dan..."

"No!" Dan shouted. "That won't work on me!" He stomped on the monster and she died.

Dan saw the other door in the room and went through it. He saw Bob and Herbert in combat against Dr. Hill.

Herbert heard his friend's footsteps. He turned and kept himself on guard. "Dan."

"Hello, Herbert." He held up the weapons he had with him. "I'm here to help."

"That's wonderful."

"Cain," Hill's head rasped at Dan.

Dan raised his rifle and fired at Hill's body, swearing to himself under his breath. The head grunted as though it had also gotten shot. "Just like the fight we went through. Interesting. Of course, this is exactly what happened with him in the morgue."

Herbert rushed forward and nearly bowled the body over with a single hit from his shovel. The head snarled a nasty threat at him, but he just smiled. "You're an illusion. Just like Maggie was. You have no power over me."

The head issued a short, evil laugh. "I wouldn't be so sure of that, West."

Herbert's smile faded and he stumbled back, almost losing his footing. He ran a finger across the small scar left by the laser drill that belonged to the real Dr. Hill and broke out into a cold, terrified sweat. Dan and Bob saw him fumble with the doorknob and ran to his side.

"Herbert?" Dan asked. "What's happening to you? What's wrong? Why are you so scared?"

"Do you remember how he used his laser drill on me during all that business nearly eight months ago?" Herbert responded, with another question.

"The one he could use to lobotomize people, living or dead, without surgery so he could bend them to his will?"

"Yes, that's the one. As you just heard, he may still have some control over me. I have one thing to ask of you or Bob, if it comes to that." He paused and removed his hand from the doorknob, seeing no need to try and escape any longer.

"Go ahead."

"If I start acting out of the ordinary, I would like you to shoot me. I think it would be in your best interest to shoot to kill. And if it comes to that, you can carry on my work."

Dan's eyes began to tear up. "Herbert, don't say that. Something like that might not happen. I couldn't shoot or kill you because you're my friend, you should know that, even though you don't seem to understand what having friends means." He realized what he said and began to cry, wishing he could take it back. He wanted to hug Herbert, but he could only manage to get one hand on his shoulder before he really began to cry, thinking about life without him.

"I'd do it, if it's what you'd want," Bob said very mournfully. "I'd hate it, because I consider you a friend, but I'd do it."

Herbert stood and charged full speed toward Hill's body. He swatted it with all his might, smiling the entire time. "Now do you see that you have no power over me? I'm not scared anymore. Come on, I want you to fight back. I'd like to se...no...not again..." He tried to get away, but it seemed he couldn't escape a repetition of his near death.

The head smiled triumphantly. "Yes, West."

The body's chest suddenly flew open and its ribs broke open like a saloon door. Herbert swallowed and faced everything to come with a stony-faced calm, not once letting out his feelings of fear and sorrow no matter how much he wanted to. _Please go on living Dan, I just want you to be happy._ Intestines shot out of the body and wrapped around him, squeezing the air and life out of every single inch of his body and preventing him from struggling like he did during the real incident.

Dan raised his gun and began to fire. "I won't let this happen again. I won't let you die." He hit the base of the intestines and their grip on Herbert loosened.

Herbert stood up. He briefly smiled at Dan. "You know I would have survived."

"You don't know that." He shot at the body, and Bob did the same thing. "How hard is it for him to die?"

"Very."

"But we're not giving up any time soon," Bob said.

After a few more shots each from Bob and Dan, the body finally fell down dead. The same happened with the head, which barely managed to utter a final, terrifying threat to Herbert.

"It's over," Dan said, wiping his brow. The room changed to his bedroom. "Or..." He saw Meg lying in the illusion of his bed.

"We'll give you some space," Bob said. He grabbed Herbert's hand and they left the room. Bob put his ear against the door of the other room.

Herbert looked at him. "You're wearing the same clothes as me. Why?"

"Part of making you go crazy. I'd like to hear what's going on with Meg and Dan."


	75. Nightmare's End

Dan sat next to Meg. "Meg..." he said.

She coughed a little, and Dan was reminded him of the way she died. "Dan..."

"Forgive me..."

"I know you were trying to save me. It's not your fault that you were too late."

"But I could have saved you. That reagent could have too."

"Dan...if that were true, then why are you so sad?"

"Meg..."

"Dan...please...please do something for me. Go on with your life."

"Okay, but know that I still love you." They shared one last kiss before she faded away.

The room reverted to normal. Dan walked to the door and saw that everything was slowly returning to normal.

Bob looked at Herbert and Dan. "I guess this is good-bye. I can't come with you in the normal world." He went over to and hugged both of them. He managed to keep Herbert from struggling out of his grip. "I'll miss you both, you were great friends."

Dan began to tear up. "I didn't know you that long, but I feel the same."

They saw that Herbert had turned away. They heard something coming his direction that sounded distinctly like crying, though he was trying not to. "I will miss you. You were certainly my most successful reagent subject, but I also thought of you as a friend. I wish there was a way you could come with us."

"Come to think of it, there's a way I could do it. There's a chance I'll forget who you are, but that's a chance I'm willing to take. See you there...hopefully."

The hotel faded to normal around them, and they saw it was mostly destroyed. Bob was still there and his friends smiled in relief. They left the hotel and made their way back to the inn.


	76. Good News

They arrived at the inn and went into their room. They collapsed onto their beds, and Dan lent Bob an extra pillow and his blanket so he could settle comfortably on the floor. As Herbert saw Dan and Bob fall asleep, he felt himself begin to succumb to the sweet embrace of sleep. He slipped off his glasses and placed them on his bedside table. He did that which he hadn't done in ages, which was sleep soundly. It was welcome and he knew he needed it after all they had gone through, whether it was real or not.

They were awoken about an hour later by a phone call from the main desk. "Yes?" Dan yawned groggily. "That's great. Where should we go? We'll be there soon." Dan went over to Herbert's bed, attempting not to step on Bob and grabbing his things. He shoved Herbert's shoulder to see if he was awake, or as awake as he was.

"Five more minutes," Herbert mumbled.

He felt his shoulder get shoved again.

"What is it, Dan!?" he snapped. He sat up and pulled his glasses back on, yawning all the while.

"My car's been fixed. We need to go to the gas station. You're pretty crabby when you're sleepy. I guess you not sleeping was the only good thing about you being addicted to your reagent, even though I hated seeing you suffer when you hadn't been on it for a while."

Herbert climbed out of his bed and grabbed his luggage. "Shall we check out then? And don't call me crabby again. It was better for me to stop, so don't say that. Believe me, I realize how much it hurt you, so I never want that to happen again."

Bob sat upright in ten seconds flat. He rubbed his eyes and tried to stifle a yawn. "You guys going somewhere?" he asked. "And why were you addicted to your reagent, Herbert?"

"Dan's car has been fixed. We're going to check out and go get it. After that, we're probably going to head back to Arkham," Herbert informed him. He tried to ignore the look of hurt on his friend's face out of guilt. "It was addicted to it, a weaker solution naturally, because it helped to not sleep and kept my brain focused and sharp."

"I'll come with you. Glad you stopped the addiction."


	77. The End

"Are you sure you want to?" Herbert asked. "We would just leave town without you after we get the car. I'm sure you wouldn't want to be around for that."

"I want to say a proper good-bye. And what if I want to get in touch with you guys again?"

They left their room and made their way to the front desk. They checked out and wandered off to the gas station. Dan smiled when he saw his car in a way he hadn't since they had gotten into town.

He and Herbert turned to talk to Bob. "Now...the contact information," Dan said. "We're going to be out of town for a while, but if you want to see us when we get back to Arkham, just ask for Dr. Dan Cain or Dr. Herbert West. We'll be working at the hospital."

"You guys are doctors?" Bob asked while giving the both of them hugs again. He was happy when Herbert didn't even struggle to get out of the hug. "I never would have guessed...or might have. I hope to see you again." Herbert and Dan got into the car after loading their luggage into the back. Bob waved as they drove in a direction that would take them out of town and back home. "Bye-bye!"

"I hope you weren't lying to him, Dan," Herbert said as they drove out of town. "I would be disappointed if you were."

"I didn't," Dan responded. "How could you think that?"

Herbert decided to deflect Dan's question with one of his own, something he had perfected since they first met. "Are you really ready to board that plane to Peru once we get home?"

"I really think we don't have much of a choice."

They drove off into the distance thinking about what was to come.


End file.
